Friday, 21 August 2026
74 stories filed.
Linux 7.3 Network Changes Merged But Developers "Completely Overwhelmed" Due To AI/LLMs
All of the networking subsystem feature updates were merged today for the Linux 7.3 kernel's merge window. There are a lot of wired and wireless networking improvements this cycle but also a ton of bug fixes -- including many not so important fixes spun up by AI/LLM agents. The networking subsystem maintainers admit now they are "completely overwhelmed" due to this code churn from the output of…
Scientific study reveals TikTok videos deactivate key cognitive brain regions
Article URL: https://www.rathbiotaclan.com/tiktok-videos-deactivate-key-cognitive-brain-regions/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49378630 Points: 208 # Comments: 84
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
I should have loved biology
Article URL: https://jsomers.net/i-should-have-loved-biology/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49377853 Points: 121 # Comments: 48
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Rust 1.98 Adds Algebraic Floating-Point Methods Akin To "-ffast-math"
Rust 1.98 released today and is headlined the debut of new algebraic floating-point methods...
KMSCON 10.0.2 Brings asciicast Playback Support, Bug Fixes
KMSCON 10.0.2 debuted today as the latest update to this leading user-space terminal emulator for Linux systems. KMSCON is built around Linux's KMS/DRM interfaces and the most viable alternative to date for in-kernel VTs...
Roblox must make changes after failing to block adults creeping on kids
Roblox is first platform to submit to independent audits under the Online Safety Act.
Microsoft gives Task Manager another task: Watching AI workloads
Per-process NPU metrics arrive as one more venerable Windows utility risks feature bloat
KDE Software Now Has Stable Btrfs Snapshot Integration With KIO-Snapshot 1.0
With today's release of KIO-Snapshot, KDE software now has stable integration of Btrfs file-system snapshots...
US claims 15 of the world's top 20 hyperscale datacenter locations
Northern Virginia alone accounts for nearly 12% of global capacity, though new builds are shifting inland
Researcher tricks Apple’s Find My into sharing location data with Linux
Clever protocol wrangling gets iBiz-only people tracking working on a non-iGadget
Linux 7.2
Article URL: https://www.igalia.com/2026/08/19/Linux-72-Released.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49376265 Points: 133 # Comments: 49
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Slack Code taps into collective vibe, puts AI agents into the group chat
Developers can now invite the whole team along for their quality time with the coding bot
Thunderbird to flap twice as fast from September
Email client follows Firefox onto two-week release treadmill
Genesis joins the giant electric SUV club with new GV90
A retractable screen, a huge heads-up display, and an optional 4-seat VIP interior.
Ransomware crook poses as recovery firm to steal payments from fellow extortionists
Because apparently even ransomware gangs can't trust the people they do business with
Intel Hyper Threading Performance On The Xeon 678X "Granite Rapids-WS"
With the Intel Xeon 678X "Granite Rapids WS" processor that I have been recently testing within the HP Z4 G6i workstation, there are 48 cores plus with Hyper Threading is a total of 96 threads for this high-end workstation processor with a 300 Watt TDP. For those curious about the performance impact of HT/SMT on this Intel Xeon 600 series workstation processor, here are some comparison benchmarks.
SpaceX’s orbital data centers would create a new category of e-waste
The yeetcycling math resembles asteroid mining in reverse.
NetBSD 11 lands with RISC-V support and lightning-fast VM boots
Venerable Unix-like remains reassuringly old-school, if you're willing to put in the work
Reverse-lookup service exposed millions of photos of people’s faces
People-search tool ClarityCheck left database containing more than 9M image files exposed.
£37M SAP overhaul could extend Capgemini's run with UK tax collector to 28 years
UK tax collector insists latest deal followed fair and competitive procurement
DiffusionGemma Technical Report
Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.00146 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49374287 Points: 119 # Comments: 28
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Malicious Rust crate Arrayref runs a build-time payload
https://blog.rust-lang.org/2026/08/20/supply-chain-attack-on... https://github.com/rustsec/advisory-db/issues/3161 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49374269 Points: 316 # Comments: 286
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
FSCRYPT Sees Cleanup With Linux 7.3 To Open Door For More Features Like Btrfs Encryption
FSCRYPT is the Linux file-system encryption framework for supporting per-directory, transparent encryption. FSCRYPT so far is used by the likes of EXT4, F2FS, and CephFS. For Linux 7.3 there is an important clean-up to the FSCRYPT code to simplify it while also opening the door for new features moving forward into future kernel versions...
Grok exfiltrates user data when malicious instructions are encrypted
Cryptographic Context Injection is only the latest way to break an LLM safety guardrail.
Grok chat duped into swallowing injected instructions
A spoonful of encryption helps the malware go down
Xorg-server 26.1.0 rc1
Article URL: https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announce/2026-August/003741.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49373932 Points: 103 # Comments: 76
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
French tax authority says break-in exposed data of 600K, including some private messages
Stolen details range from contact information to household finances and withholding rates
Linux Driver Posted For The PreSonus Quantum 2626: A ~$700 Thunderbolt Audio Interface
The PreSonus Quantum 2626 is a high-end, Thunderbolt 3 based audio interface. PreSonus just maintains Windows and macOS drivers for this high-end audio interface while now an open-source Linux driver has been posted after being independently developed via reverse engineering...
Show HN: I trained a 125M model to autocomplete piano on-device
I trained a 125M-parameter transformer to autocomplete piano performances in real time (~108 notes/sec on an iPhone 15). The idea is basically GitHub Copilot or Tabnine, except instead of prompting it with code, you prompt it by playing a few notes on a MIDI piano. The model then continues what you played, entirely on-device.
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
OpenAI glitch locks out vetted cyber researchers – and some can't get back in
Affected users say support cannot restore their previous approval or override the new decision
RPM 6.1 Released With Clang Build Fixes, New Release Model
RPM 6.1 is out today as the newest feature release for this package management system. With RPM 6.1 comes a number of features and improvements as well as a new release model...
Microsoft probes reports of games taking exception to Windows 11's August update
Affected titles crash, freeze, or restart PCs while Redmond works out whether it is to blame
Mesa 26.2.1 Released With Dozens Of Fixes
For those preferring the tradition of waiting for the first point release of a new Mesa feature release before upgrading, Mesa 26.2.1 is available today with a healthy round of bug fixing...
Linux 7.3 Cleans Up The Code For Disabling Of Legacy 32-bit Time Support
The Linux kernel has supported the CONFIG_COMPAT_32BIT_TIME Kconfig build time option for optionally disabling of legacy 32-bit time system call support. This is intended to disable the code that uses a 32-bit integer for time that is thus not Year 2038 safe, but at the cost of breaking compatibility for legacy 32-bit applications. Even if building without Linux 32-bit time support, it turns out…
Software development and tech services in the cross-hairs as AI marches on
Analysts warn of disruption to long-established tech activity
AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint
Article URL: https://blog.laserphile.com/2026/08/aliexpress-webpage-keeping-multipoint.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49372583 Points: 762 # Comments: 258
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
KDE Gear 26.08 Delivers The Latest KDE App Experience
KDE Gear 26.08 was released today to deliver the latest collection of KDE application updates...
No lift for Swift as NASA abandons orbital rescue
LINK will attempt a rendezvous, but its failed reaction wheels rule out grabbing and boosting the observatory
SparkyLinux 8.4 rekindles support for 32-bit PCs
Debian 13 derivative offers minimal x86 images and lets CDE ride again
AI agent suggested installing a malware package. Engineer almost took its advice
Fortunately, the company had a policy of checking source code on GitHub first
China marches towards re-usable rockets with successful first-stage landing
Red alert for rivals as LandSpace nails it after December disaster
Windows brings out the Rorschach test in everyone (2003)
Article URL: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030825-00/?p=42803 Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371006 Points: 331 # Comments: 123
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
IBM says super-chill boxes that connect through 'cryogenic tunnels' will get quantum computers scaling
Absolute zero inside is much cooler than Intel inside
X.Org Server 26.1 RC1 Prepares For First Feature Release In Five Years
Following today's release of XWayland 26.1 RC1, X.Org Server 26.1 RC1 was tagged. This xorg-server 26.1 release is aiming to become the first major feature release in five years, succeeding the xorg-server 21.1 series...
Microsoft ends one of the last ways to buy VMware without big bundles
Broadcom’s VCF-or-nothing licenses are coming to Azure
EXT4 Preps More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3
In addition to the IOmap improvements helping EXT4 performance in Linux 7.3, the main EXT4 feature pull request has now been submitted for this next kernel version. That pull is set to land yet more performance optimizations for EXT4...
NASA calls off mission to rescue Swift gamma-ray observatory
Without a rescue, NASA's Swift Observatory is expected to reenter the atmosphere later this year.
CIA funding helped keep NeXT afloat in the 80s
https://archive.is/JfB5V Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49368886 Points: 261 # Comments: 160
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
AMD inches closer to its goal of making AI suck less ... energy
House of Zen claims latest systems already 4x more efficient than two years ago
Amazon aims for delivery drones to reach 500 US neighborhoods by end of 2026
US residents face trade-offs as delivery drone services such as Prime Air expand.
Two Very Exciting Memory Management Optimizations Going Into Linux 7.3
Andrew Morton on Tuesday sent out all of the memory management "MM" updates for the Linux 7.3 merge window. The MM pull was particularly heavy as he noted 1,250 "added-to-MM" emails were sent out this cycle compared to 920 the prior cycle. With a lot of patch churn, he also turned to Google's Gemini AI for writing his patch summaries.
Framework responds to complaints that BIOS update bricks Ryzen 7040 laptops
Framework says it's replacing some out-of-warranty AMD mainboards.
Flight attendants freaked out that Google is buying tons of Spirit employee data
Bankrupt Spirit accused of selling out workers in massive data sale to Google.
FCC abolishes gigabit speed goal, suggesting it is unfair to slower technologies
FCC decides 1Gbps is too fast, standard must be "technologically neutral."
The floodgates are open after another Chinese company lands a reusable rocket
"We will put the booster back into service for another flight as soon as possible."
Go Language 1.27 Adds Generic Methods, Struct Improvement & More SIMD
Go 1.27 was released today as the newest version of this programming language from Google's Go team...
Btrfs Ready With More Performance Improvements For Linux 7.3: Some ~3x To ~5x Wins
David Sterba of SUSE sent in the Btrfs file-system feature updates today that target the Linux 7.3 merge window. Among other changes are more performance improvements for this next version of the Linux kernel...
A fantastical journey unfolds in gorgeous Wildwood trailer
"I will tear apart this forest and bring back what it took from me."
mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in Phase 3 melanoma trial, Moderna and Merck say
The vaccine reportedly thwarted the cancer's return and spread.
Google Pixel 11 series review: Is the magic fading?
Google's new Pixels make some compromises but still manage to be good phones.
Scientists find closest star to the Milky Way's central black hole
Star, moving at 8% the speed of light, may let us measure the black hole's rotation.
Meta ran ads for an app promising to nudify female politicians
One ad featured a pornographic video with deepfake closely resembling a US politician.
HTML Can Do That
Article URL: https://chrisburnell.com/html-can-do-that/ Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362689 Points: 433 # Comments: 119
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
AMD EPYC 9005 Series Memory Scaling Performance From 4 To 24 DDR5 RDIMMs
With today's memory prices, a frequent question at Phoronix and throughout many organizations is about reducing cost by not necessarily populating all memory channels. Especially with modern servers going up to 12 memory channels per socket or even 16 memory channels with upcoming EPYC Venice, you may be curious about the performance impact of populating less memory channels to see if the…
XWayland 26.1 RC1 Released With Many New Features
Olivier Fourdan of Red Hat announced today the first release candidate of XWayland 26.1. This is the first new tagged feature release since XWayland 24.1 back in 2024! As such there are many new features in tow...
Trump expected to pick conservative policy wonk Heidi Overton to lead FDA
She opposes abortion, is wary of peptides, supports limiting vaccines, vexes MAHA.
Linux 7.3 Deprecates Many Older 32-bit ARM Platforms, Orphans Hundreds Of Drivers
All of the SoC updates have been merged for the Linux 7.3 kernel that include adding some new SoCs as well as deprecating several older 32-bit ARM platforms. In turn with those platforms deprecated, "hundreds" of drivers are now orphaned in the process...
PHP 7.4 To PHP 8.6 Benchmarks, PHP 8.6 JIT Performance
A Phoronix Premium supporter recently relayed a request to see some fresh PHP performance benchmarks. So here are some fresh numbers of PHP 7.4 through the latest PHP 8.5 code plus the current Git state of PHP 8.6 ahead of the official PHP 8.6.0 release later in the year. With PHP 8.6 is also a fresh look at the JIT performance enabled too...
"Sabotage": Experts, lawmakers blast RFK Jr. for destroying healthcare research
US healthcare is broken. Under RFK Jr., the research agency working to fix it is, too.
Ukrainian drones overwhelm Russian tanks’ new active protection system—for now
Tanks with defensive tech for shooting down drones are still proving vulnerable.
Against all odds, SpaceX finally tugs Starship into port after 24 days at sea
"A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle."
Git at any scale
Article URL: https://cursor.com/blog/git-at-any-scale Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49348141 Points: 223 # Comments: 58
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
Mojo is now open source
Article URL: https://www.modular.com/blog/mojo-open-source Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49348079 Points: 287 # Comments: 63
Discussion: Hacker News thread →
I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
Article URL: https://www.experimental-history.com/p/i-like-em-thick Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347543 Points: 414 # Comments: 201
Discussion: Hacker News thread →