Tuesday, 18 August 2026
72 stories filed.
FFmpeg Lands H.265 Vulkan Encode Performance Optimizations
The FFmpeg multimedia library can now enjoy faster H.265/HEVC video encoding with the Vulkan-powered encode path. With the optimizations merged today, the H.265 encode performance should be roughly at parity to the H.264 encode speed...
Supreme Court rejects Verizon bid for $47 million refund of FCC fine
Despite loss, carriers still claim selling device-location data isn't illegal.
AI;DR (AI; Didn't Read)
Article URL: https://www.rickmanelius.com/p/aidr-ai-didnt-read Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49336573 Points: 137 # Comments: 53
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Offloading Rust To GPUs Proves Capable Of High Performance With Memory Safety
A new research paper published on LLVM offloading to GPU accelerators using the Rust programming language is talking up the prospects of making use of safe Rust code for GPU kernels while retaining Rust's memory safety and other advantages over C++ / CUDA / HIP...
Petlibro accused of “gaslighting” users over smart pet feeder outage
Petlibro says feeders perform scheduled feedings offline. Users report otherwise.
Hidden Airtag reveals Amazon is trashing rare books to train AI
Amazon’s team uses a T. rex preparing to devour a book as its logo.
Qwen3.8 27B scores 52 on Artificial Analysis
Article URL: https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/qwen3-8-27b Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49334544 Points: 188 # Comments: 95
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
ARCTIC Fan Controller: The Best Fan Controller For Linux Desktops, Less Than $10 USD
Back in March were patches posted by ARCTIC Cooling for an ARCTIC fan controller driver for Linux. Typically we aren't used to seeing desktop/enthusiast focused vendors providing such Linux drivers for peripherals directly but the sad fact is most often it's left up to the open-source community to reverse engineer and create such drivers for Linux. Making it all the more surprising besides it…
An AI broke Snowflake's code. Then another AI agent exploited it
Don't worry, this one was via a bug bounty program
Mozilla adds ad blocking to Firefox for iOS
Experimental feature to block some, but not all, ads
AMD Working On A New Backend For Improving ROCm Compute In QEMU/VMs
AMD engineers are working on enhancing the open-source ROCm compute stack for better handling GPU virtualized compute under QEMU...
GitHub has Issues as repo downloads hit 50% error rate
Copilot also wobbles as another outage tests developer patience
$1K laser mosquito zapper promises precision strikes as backers itch for answers
After raising $2.8M, the project has entered production, but company comms have done little to reassure buyers
This sub-$7,000 sportscar might be just what the future needs
The Gasolini AR1 uses 2-cylinder Honda bike engine, and an EV is underway, too.
Nvidia discloses $21B stake in SpaceX
Filing comes after Elon Musk announced exclusive arrangement to kit out its data centers.
AI-Generated GitHub Copilot “Autofix” Allowed Compromise of Snowflake's Jira
Article URL: https://www.wiz.io/blog/red-agent-snowflake-copilot-cicd-bug Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331423 Points: 253 # Comments: 111
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Linux 7.3 SMP Improvement To Help Reduce Latency, Improve Real-Time Performance
Among the pull requests sent out today now that the Linux 7.3 merge window is open are the SMP improvements for this next kernel version. Standing out among the SMP code are some enhancements for helping reduce latency and ultimately enhancing real-time Linux performance...
Apple's App Tracking Transparency treated its own apps better than rivals
Article URL: https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2026/08_17_2026_Apple_ATTF.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331222 Points: 227 # Comments: 84
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
How to disable or avoid intrusive AI
Article URL: https://www.librarian.net/notoai/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331220 Points: 191 # Comments: 97
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Windows 11 movable taskbar edges closer to general release
Preview also brings compact icons, Start menu sizing, and the final shove for WMIC
Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub
Github has been down consistently over the last few months - does it make sense to switch to alternatives? Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331033 Points: 401 # Comments: 254
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
A Preview of DuckDB v2.0
Article URL: https://duckdb.org/2026/08/17/duckdb-20-highlights Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49330781 Points: 425 # Comments: 67
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Meet the only known trebuchet casualty in history
"It highlights the brutality of medieval warfare," said paleopathologist Jo Buckberry.
Incident with Github.com
Just got this message: "No server is currently available to service your request. Sorry about that. Please try refreshing and contact us if the problem persists." Edit: at the time of posting there was not an incident on githubstatus.com.
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Capita handed vital role in next pandemic despite civil service pension failures
Initial £31M deal comes with scope to scale sharply during a major outbreak
Firefox 154 Now Available With "Manage AI" Quick Action
Firefox 154 is now available as the newest monthly update bringing a few new features, enhancements, and other alterations to this open-source web browser...
Agentic AI costs set to balloon fivefold by 2028
Cheaper tokens won't help when complex workflows consume so many more of them, Gartner warns
Intel & AMD Power Management Driver Improvements Ready For Linux 7.3
In advance of the Linux 7.3 merge window opening, Linux power management subsystem maintainer Rafael Wysocki of Intel submitted all the power management, ACPI, and thermal control code. As not too much of a surprise, Intel and AMD driver updates dominate the power management changes for Linux 7.3...
GPT 5.6 Sol is the best "vision" model OpenAI ever released
Article URL: https://blog.roboflow.com/openai-gpt-5-6/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329575 Points: 255 # Comments: 134
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Crook hawks millions of records allegedly plundered from corporate Azure tenants
McDonald's, Vodafone, TCS, Kyndryl, and others named as researchers point to compromised credentials
KTransformers 0.7 Expands AVX-512 Support To Benefit AMD EPYC Servers
KTransformers as the framework for heterogeneous LLM inference and fine-tune optimizations is out today with its v0.7 feature release...
Satellite operators are in panic mode due to a worsening launch crisis
What happens if the Falcon rockets stop flying?
Excel's Copilot function is headed for the Recycle Bin
Microsoft realizes the side pane should be enough for anyone
Con Kolivas Revives "-ck" Patches & MuQSS To Improve Linux Desktop Responsiveness
Huge surprise this morning! Longtime Linux users may recall the out-of-tree work done years ago by open-source developer Con Kolivas... And as part of that his work on the Brain F*** Scheduler that evolved into the MuQSS scheduler, all in the name of working to improve Linux desktop and mobile responsiveness.
Be a hater all you want, AI's here to stay
The good news? One of the worst bits, tech giants controlling it all, might soon be over
Linux 7.3 On PowerPC Now Supports In-Kernel Rust, Initial Power12 Enablement Begins
The PowerPC pull request has already been sent in for the now open Linux 7.3 merge window. The headline feature this cycle on the POWER side is Rust kernel support for PowerPC 32-bit PPC32BE big endian and PowerPC 64-bit PPC64LE little endian architectures...
ARM64 BBML3 Feature Ready With Linux 7.3, NVIDIA Olympus Workarounds
AI/LLM patch craziness hurt ARM64 development for the Linux 7.2 cycle that no real features landed for that kernel version on AArch64. Fortunately, the ARM Linux developers are more prepared now and for Linux 7.3 are introducing some new ARM64 features...
GNU Linux-libre 7.2-gnu Released Following More Driver Cleaning
Following yesterday's release of the Linux 7.2 kernel, GNU Linux-libre 7.2-gnu is now available for this kernel downstream that strips out support for drivers depending upon non-free-software microcode/firmware, the ability to load closed-source kernel modules, and other restrictions in the name of software freedom...
Code fixers have fired up the AI warp drive. Strange new worlds await
With more patches per month than at a pirate convention, the bug must be an endangered species. Well, about that
Black Hat and DEF CON are AI conferences now, too
On this week's episode of The Reg's Kettle podcast, we revisit 'hacker summer camp,' where the hottest topic was ... sigh... agentic AI
Part didn't fit so techie got out his screwdriver. Then something flew off the motherboard
Whatever it was broke a PC and led to a face-saving lie
Linux 7.2 debuts, Linus Torvalds says ‘new normal’ means he had to do it now ... or never?
Say hello to smarter use of caches to speed things up, and a very odd gaming controller. Say goodbye to some PCMCIA support
Sainsbury's staff eject wrong shopper after facial recognition alert – again
Facewatch says its technology worked as intended before humans mishandled the result
Microsoft blames AI for delayed Exchange update, can’t say when it will arrive
Dealing with machine-made bug backlog makes it hard to find a moment to deliver promised subscription service
On AI regulation and messaging
https://xcancel.com/DarioAmodei/status/2088758816376807762 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325789 Points: 218 # Comments: 461
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Chinese AI company Zhipu claims its new model is a better bug-finder than Anthropic, OpenAI
PLUS: HCL, TCS, admit data breaches; South Korea to fine Apple, Google; India bans some rideshare tips; and more!
Linux 7.2 Released With Faster I/O, New AMD & Intel Driver Improvements
Linus Torvalds just released Linux 7.2 as stable! After a very busy kernel cycle due to the increased patch and reporting churn due to AI/LLM ages, Linux 7.2 managed to make it out today on-schedule for this feature-packed kernel. Linux 7.2 is going on to power Ubuntu 26.10 and other upcoming Linux distribution releases...
Anthropic's ‘watermark’ text adulteration in Claude is a perversion of writing
Article URL: https://daringfireball.net/2026/08/anthropics_watermark_text_adulteration_in_claude_is_a_perversion_of_writing Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49324087 Points: 739 # Comments: 642
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
GIMP Making Progress On New Project File Format After Nearly 30 Years With XCF
The GIMP project has published their latest development update to highlight the interesting work that's ongoing toward GIMP 3.4 and future releases...
tlbi= Boot Option Submitted Ahead Of Linux 7.2 Kernel Release
Ahead of the Linux 7.2 kernel stable release expected to occur in the coming hours, a last minute "x86/urgent" pull request was submitted with one patch for adding the new tlbi= boot option...
Debian Marks 33rd Birthday As One Of The Oldest Maintained Linux Distros
Today marks thirty three years since the Debian Linux distribution was started by the late Ian Murdock...
AVX-512 xor_gen Continues To Look Exciting For Helping Linux RAID With Modern CPUs
Google engineer Eric Biggers back in June posted an AVX-512 optimization for Linux RAID yielding up to a 41% improvement on a modern AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) processor. A revised patch then put it as much as a 43% improvement for this AVX-512 optimized xor_gen() function. The code hasn't yet been merged to mainline but an updated version of it is now available...
Linux 7.3 binfmt_misc To Allow BPF Programs To Dynamically Choose Execution Environments
The Linux kernel's binfmt_misc functionality allows non-native/custom files to be run directly such as for Windows EXE files to be handled by Wine or JAR files to be handled by the Java runtime. For the upcoming Linux 7.3 merge window, the miscellaneous binary formats support is being extended so a binary type can be matched programmatically and the interpreter determined on a per-exec basis.…
New Linux Driver Enables 12VHPWR Monitoring For ASUS ROG Astral Graphics Cards
For those concerned about current imbalance or voltage changes with the 12VHPWR power connectors and having an ASUS ROG Astral graphics card, there is now an open-source driver for Linux available that integrates with the hardware monitoring (HWMON) subsystem for 12VHPWR reporting on these ASUS graphics cards...
Stopping a cyberattack while walking your dog - defensive AI security CEO says it's not ruff to do
Corma CEO tells The Reg it's building 'One ring to rule them all, for the defenders to have this power'
Wildfire smoke now bigger prenatal threat than human sources of air pollution
Regulations reduced prenatal exposure to harmful emissions, but wildfire smoke is erasing gains.
The what, why, and how of pull requests and source comments
Microsoft veteran on knowing the difference and convincing approvers to accept a change
Marek Olšák's 19 Latest Patches Further Optimizing RADV & ACO
Legendary Mesa Radeon Gallium3D driver developer Marek Olšák who was a longtime AMD employee and then joined Valve's Linux graphics driver team earlier this year has continued his focus now on perfecting his art around the RADV Vulkan driver and ACO shader compiler...
VisionQuest trailer kicks off Disney's D23 fan event
Also: Ahsoka S2 teaser, Doomsday trailer, news about MCU's X-Men and Star Wars: Starfighter .
Ukraine strikes major Russian rocket factory with cruise missiles
"Flamingo missiles were used. A good achievement."
So much solar: Digging into the list of every US power plant that went online this year
Utility-scale solar leads by a mile, followed by batteries. Fossil fuels, not so much.
ChainDrop worm crawls into npm supply chain, evades standard defenses
Shai-Hulud variant poisons 444 packages, spreads via tarballs and dev-tool hooks
Vulnerability giving attackers full control of Macs is under active exploitation
Screen-sharing bug lets remote hackers log in without a password.
First test flight of largest all-electric aircraft used just $5 of electricity
Airline-backed venture aims to develop a hybrid-electric commercial aircraft.
Suspecting court of using AI, man injected prompts in filings to try to win case
Judge warns pro se litigants are using chatbots wrong and getting desperate.
State judge orders Kalshi to stop offering sports bets and other wagers
Kalshi ordered to stop offering bets in Washington, must implement geofencing.
PBS station fears losing 50TB of data after being ghosted by cloud storage provider
"We don't have access to the data on the hardware/servers," Iron Mountain told Ars.
Policy experts: Europe stuck between "rock and a hard place" on launch
It turns out that the economics of rocket reuse are pretty, pretty good.
Ars Live recap: How can we stop publishers from killing their own games?
The Stop Killing Games movement faces an uphill battle.
Judge gives Google one week to fix "anticompetitive" app store download in Google Play
Third-party app stores are about to become more visible in Google Play.
R-rated director's cut of X-Files film restores Chris Carter's original horror vision
Chris Carter chats with Ars about the film he originally wanted to make—and why it's more relevant than ever.
Olo (Color)
Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olo_(color) Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49270194 Points: 193 # Comments: 46
Discussion: Hacker News thread →