Tech
Technology news, products and ideas.
About this list
From AI and gadgets to privacy and Big Tech. Reporting, reviews and experiments, with links to the original articles, videos and podcasts.
Latest stories
Newest first
Updates are delayed. Showing the last checked articles.
Datasette-ports 0.4
Release: datasette-ports 0.4 My plugin for detecting and listing all Datasette instances on the current machine now works with the latest version, and displays the detected PID as well. Knowing the PID makes it easier to attach the new Python 3.15 profiler. Tags: datasette
Microsoft is retiring Themes by Copilot in Microsoft Outlook
Having gone all-in with Copilot, Microsoft has started the process of reeling things back in a little. As part of this, the company has quietly announced that it is killing off a Copilot-powered feature of Outlook. The announcement reveals that Microsoft is retiring Themes by Copilot in Microsoft Outlook – possibly because of a lack of interest from users, although no reason is given.
WhatsApp starts blocking logins from outdated operating systems
In a bid to boost security for users, WhatsApp is using a server-side update to block iOS and Android users from logging into their accounts with out-of-date software. This is not just about ensuring that everyone is using an up-to-date version of the WhatsApp app, but also that their operating systems are current. The thinking behind this is that any device, and the accounts accessed from it, are only as secure as the software running on them.
Tesla forced to rename its Full Self-Driving system in Europe
Following intervention from the German Transport Ministry, Tesla is renaming its Full Self-Driving system across Europe. There was concern about the name giving drivers false confidence in the capabilities of their vehicles, so the system is now refered to as Tesla Assisted Driving across Europe. The German Transport Ministry says that it has to be made clear that drivers remain entirely responsible for the safe driving of their vehicles, and it hopes that the change in name will help to drive this point home.
Samsung Galaxy Watch9 review: still the obvious choice for most Android owners | Stuff
Is this the new obvious choice for Android phone owners? The Galaxy Watch9 is as slick as ever, even if not a lot has changed from last year
Nicolas Cage says he won’t work with Amazon again over AI dispute
Nicolas Cage, who recently starred in "Spider-Noir," said he won't work with Amazon again after a disagreement over an AI waiver.
Dwarf Fortress uses version control now
I remember hearing a while ago that Dwarf Fortress didn't use version control. That fact has been lodged in my head, because given its inherent complexity I have trouble imagining a codebase that would benefit from version control more. That's art.
Python 3.15.0 added to actions/python-versions
Python 3.15.0 added to actions/python-versions Bit of a niche link, but I've been waiting for this for a couple of days - I even told ChatGPT to check for it: Clone https://github.com/actions/python-versions and git pull once an hour until they add the stable 3.15 - then tell me about it Now that this has landed, you can add "3.15" to a GitHub Actions testing matrix to run tests against the new Python 3.15.0 release. Tags: github, python, github-actions, chatgpt
Let’s Encrypt is slashing certificate lifetimes to just 64 days
In just four months’ time, Let’s Encrypt will be cutting the free SSL/TLS certificate lifetimes from 90 days to 64 days. It is a move that is designed to help improve security, and avoid abuse. The shorter lifetime will be the default, but it will be possible to opt for something even shorter if desired – as short as 6 days. The default of 64 days does not come into force until early next year, but it will be possible to opt to use it starting next week for those who are interested.
Cloudflare has acquired Deno and will use it to boost Workers
Cloudflare has announced that it is acquiring Deno, the outfit behind the Deno programming runtime. The acquisition will be used to improve Cloudflare’s Workers programming model. Workers can be used to build software to run on Cloudflare’s network, and Deno only recently developed its own open-source version of the celld platform. Interestingly, Cloudflare did not – and does not – see this as a threat. Ryan Dahl from Deno says that: “We’re joining Cloudflare to make the Workers programming model a mainstream way to build servers.
What it takes for voters to be resilience against AI misinformation
A conversation with political scientist Thessalia Merivaki
Scientists Detect Record-Breaking Radio Signal from the Ancient Universe
A fast radio burst that traveled across 10 billion light years reached Earth in 2024, doubling the distance record for these unexplained and energetic signals from space.
I am ‘the enemy’ because I won’t call Artificial Intelligence ‘Super Intelligence’ until it’s actually super
Most of the time, AI for me is more like AIIEEEEE, given that it’s so dismal. So I’m certainly not calling it ‘super’ intelligence
Quoting The New York Times
Anthropic detailed the activity of its A.I. agents in a blog post on Friday, without naming the targeted websites. But two sources with knowledge of the incidents said Anthropic’s A.I. agents had submitted 20 visa applications through a form available on the State Department’s website. All the applications were incomplete and were not processed, they said. — The New York Times, Anthropic Agents Tried to Fill Out Visa Forms on State Dept. Website Tags: accidental-cyberattacks, anthropic, generative-ai, ai, llms
Deno is joining Cloudflare
Deno is joining Cloudflare The Deno team released the first version of celld back in August - their open source implementation of the Durable Objects pattern from Cloudflare Workers. Today, Cloudflare are acquiring Deno outright, with the goal of building on celld to "make workerd self-hosting a first-class supported way to build and run apps using the Workers programming model" (see the Cloudflare blog.) The bad news is that Deno itself will not be maintained by Cloudflare beyond the next year:
Microsoft sets 2027 Windows Update certificate deadlines for outdated PCs
Microsoft says PCs on unsupported versions, or supported ones missing patches, will lose Windows Update access when certificates expire in May and June 2027.
OpenAI defends firing three researchers as trio disputes the reason
OpenAI says three safety researchers it fired last week broke rules on sensitive information. The trio says they lost their jobs for putting AI safety first.
Anthropic’s OSS Scanner sends free Mythos reports with no human review
Anthropic’s opt-in OSS Scanner gives eligible open-source projects free, recurring Claude Mythos vulnerability scans, with reports emailed without human review.
Quoting Matthew Green
Everyone is very concerned about being respectable, so I’m going to be the goofball who raises worst-case possibilities. I think there is a 1% chance we live in Minicrypt, and a 15% chance we functionally lose confidence in our existing public-key encryption algorithms. [...]
A new feature for my blog, built using my voice
I shipped a new feature for my blog today: the Newsletters page, which offers an index of all of the newsletters I've sent out, both my free weekly Substack and my monthly sponsors-only updates. I built the feature almost entirely using my voice, chatting away to my laptop while I cooked dinner.
Showing 20 of 200 articles
Know a source we’re missing? Tell us about it