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Linus Torvalds, software engineer: “Using AI for this could be a terrible idea”  Diario AS

An anonymous reader shares a report: Singapore's police have ordered Apple and Google to prevent the spoofing of government agencies on their messaging platforms, the home affairs ministry said on Tuesday. The order under the nation's Online Criminal Harms Act came after the police observed scams on Apple's iMessage and Google Messages purporting to be from companies such as the local postal service SingPost. While government agencies have registered with a local SMS registry so only they can send messages with the "gov.sg" name, this does not currently apply to the iMessage and Google Messages platforms.

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Life’s not bad on Bazzite.  The Verge

In the latest Windows Insider beta update, Microsoft has announced that it is exploring preloading File Explorer in the background to improve launch performance. The feature will load File Explorer silently before users click on it and can be toggled off for those who prefer not to use it. Microsoft introduced a similar capability earlier this year for Office called Startup Boost that loads parts of Word in the background so the application launches more quickly. The company is also removing elements from the File Explorer context menu in the same update.

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SUSE vision: AI assists Linux infrastructure via voice  Techzine Global

SUSE’s MCP Server tech preview lays foundation for AI-assisted Linux infrastructure  SiliconANGLE

I built my dream developer setup — and it's not on Linux  MakeUseOf

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Lenovo is stockpiling memory and other critical components to navigate a supply crunch brought on by the boom in artificial intelligence. The world's biggest PC maker is holding on to component inventories that are roughly 50% higher than usual, Chief Financial Officer Winston Cheng told Bloomberg TV on Monday. The frenzy to build and fill AI data centers with advanced hardware is raising prices for producers of consumer electronics, but Lenovo also sees opportunity in this to capitalize on its stockpile. "The price is going very, very high, of course, and I think it's been unprecedented in terms of this rate driven by the AI demand," Cheng said. His company has long-term contracts in place and the benefit of scale, he added, and "those that have the supply actually would be able to have a position in the market." Beijing-based Lenovo will aim to avoid passing on rising costs to its customers in the current quarter, as it wants to sustain this year's strong sales growth, according to the CFO. He said the company will strike a balance between price and availability in 2026. Lenovo said last week that it has enough memory chips for all of 2026 and it can navigate any shortages better than its competitors.

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Do You Want To Be An AI Plumber?  EEJournal

This Linux OS has got a million downloads since Windows 10 support ended – should Microsoft start worrying now?  TechRadar

How I finally unlocked Linux’s find command  How-To Geek

Fedora-Based Ultramarine 43 Is Now Available with Pinebook Pro Support  9to5Linux

Linux-Based Zorin 18 OS Tops A Million Users After Windows 10 Support Ends — 780K Switch From Windows  Tech4Gamers

Celebrate the National Railway Museum’s 50th & the railway’s 200th anniversaries with 1000 artifacts, 360° tours and untold stories.Celebrate the National Railway Museum’s 50th & the railway’s 200th anniversaries with 1000 artifacts, 360° tours and untold stories.

The EPA has approved new pesticides that qualify as PFAS "forever chemicals" (paywalled; alternative source), sparking criticism from scientists and environmental groups who warn these decisions could increase Americans' exposure through food and water at a time when many states are moving to restrict such substances. The Washington Post reports: This month, the agency approved two new pesticides that meet the internationally recognized definition for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or fluorinated substances, and has announced plans for four additional approvals. The authorized pesticides, cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram, which was approved Thursday, will be used on vegetables such as romaine lettuce, broccoli and potatoes. The agency also announced plans to relax a rule requiring companies to report all products containing PFAS and has proposed weakening drinking water standards for the chemicals. "Many fluorinated compounds registered or proposed for U.S. pesticidal use in recent years offer unique benefits for farmers, users, and the public," EPA spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said in a statement. "It is important to differentiate between the highly toxic PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS for which the EPA has set drinking water standards, versus less toxic PFAS in pesticides that help maintain food security," notes Doug Van Hoewyk, a toxicologist at Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. He added that concerns about food residue depend on the PFAS and the quantity. Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, also commented: "The data we have about the use of PFAS pesticides is already seven years old, and since there have been many new approvals during that time, those numbers are sure to underestimate the amount were using today."

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How to Manage User Passwords on Linux  TechRepublic

Scientists report that the Antarctic ozone hole in 2025 is the fifth-smallest since 1992, thanks largely to decades of global restrictions on ozone-depleting chemicals under the Montreal Protocol. ABC News reports: The ozone hole reached its greatest one-day extent for 2025 in early September, measuring 8.83 million square miles, about 30% smaller than the largest hole on record in 2006. NOAA and NASA scientists emphasize that recent findings show efforts to limit ozone-depleting chemical compounds can have a significant impact. The regulations are established by the Montreal Protocol, which went into effect in 1992. Subsequent amendments are driving the gradual recovery of the ozone layer, which remains on track to fully recover later this century as countries worldwide replace harmful substances with safer alternatives. For decades, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting compounds were widely used in aerosol sprays, foams, air conditioners and refrigerators, causing significant reductions in ozone levels. Natural factors, such as temperature and atmospheric circulation, also influence ozone concentrations and are likely to have contributed to a smaller ozone hole this year, according to researchers. "This year's hole would have been more than one million square miles larger if there was still as much chlorine in the stratosphere as there was 25 years ago," said Paul Newman, a senior scientist at the University of Maryland system and longtime leader of NASA's ozone research team.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Hacker conferences -- like all conventions -- are notorious for giving attendees a parting gift of mystery illness. To combat "con crud," New Zealand's premier hacker conference, Kawaiicon, quietly launched a real-time, room-by-room carbon dioxide monitoring system for attendees. To get the system up and running, event organizers installed DIY CO2 monitors throughout the Michael Fowler Centre venue before conference doors opened on November 6. Attendees were able to check a public online dashboard for clean air readings for session rooms, kids' areas, the front desk, and more, all before even showing up. "It's ALMOST like we are all nerds in a risk-based industry," the organizers wrote on the convention's website. "What they did is fantastic," Jeff Moss, founder of the Defcon and Black Hat security conferences, told WIRED. "CO2 is being used as an approximation for so many things, but there are no easy, inexpensive network monitoring solutions available. Kawaiicon building something to do this is the true spirit of hacking." [...] Kawaiicon's work began one month before the conference. In early October, organizers deployed a small fleet of 13 RGB Matrix Portal Room CO2 Monitors, an ambient carbon dioxide monitor DIY project adapted from US electronics and kit company Adafruit Industries. The monitors were connected to an Internet-accessible dashboard with live readings, daily highs and lows, and data history that showed attendees in-room CO2 trends. Kawaiicon tested its CO2 monitors in collaboration with researchers from the University of Otago's public health department. The Michael Fowler Centre is a spectacular blend of Scandinavian brutalism and interior woodwork designed to enhance sound and air, including two grand pou -- carved Mori totems -- next to the main entrance that rise through to the upper foyers. Its cathedral-like acoustics posed a challenge to Kawaiicon's air-hacking crew, which they solved by placing the RGB monitors in stereo. There were two on each level of the Main Auditorium (four total), two in the Renouf session space on level 1, plus monitors in the daycare and Kuracon (kids' hacker conference) areas. To top it off, monitors were placed in the Quiet Room, at the Registration Desk, and in the Green Room. Kawaiicon's attendees could quickly check the conditions before they arrived and decide how to protect themselves accordingly. At the event, WIRED observed attendees checking CO2 levels on their phones, masking and unmasking in different conference areas, and watching a display of all room readings on a dashboard at the registration desk. In each conference session room, small wall-mounted monitors displayed stoplight colors showing immediate conditions: green for safe, orange for risky, and red to show the room had high CO2 levels, the top level for risk. Colorful custom-made Kawaiicon posters by New Zealand artist Pepper Raccoon placed throughout the Michael Fowler Centre displayed a QR code, making the CO2 dashboard a tap away, no matter where they were at the conference. Resources, parts lists, and assembly guides can be found here.

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Backup and Restore Your Flatpak Apps & Settings Between Distro Switch and Reinstalls  It's FOSS

Researchers warn that rapid advances in neuroscience, pharmacology, and AI are bringing "brain weapons" out of science fiction and into real-world plausibility. They argue current arms treaties don't adequately cover these emerging tools and call for a new, proactive framework to prevent the weaponization of the human mind. The Guardian reports: Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are about to publish a book that they believe should be a wake-up call to the world. [...] The book, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, explores how advances in neuroscience, pharmacology and artificial intelligence are coming together to create a new threat. "We are entering an era where the brain itself could become a battlefield," said Crowley. "The tools to manipulate the central nervous system -- to sedate, confuse or even coerce -- are becoming more precise, more accessible and more attractive to states." The book traces the fascinating, if appalling, history of state-sponsored research into central nervous system (CNS)-acting chemicals. [...] The academics argue that the ability exists to create much more "sophisticated and targeted" weapons that would once have been unimaginable. Dando said: "The same knowledge that helps us treat neurological disorders could be used to disrupt cognition, induce compliance, or even in the future turn people into unwitting agents." The threat is "real and growing" but there are gaps in international arms control treaties preventing it from being tackled effectively, they say. [...] The book makes the case for a new "holistic arms control" framework, rather than relying on existing arms control treaties. It sets out a number of practical steps that could be taken, including establishing a working group on CNS-acting and broader incapacitating agents. Other proposals concern training, monitoring and definitions. "We need to move from reactive to proactive governance," said Dando. Both men acknowledge that we are learning more about the brain and the central nervous system, which is good for humanity. They said they were not trying to stifle scientific progress and it was about preventing malign intent. Crowley said: "This is a wake-up call. We must act now to protect the integrity of science and the sanctity of the human mind."

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