Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
February 11th, 2026After using Notepad on Windows for about thirty years, I uninstalled it on Windows 11 because it could interact with Copilot. Even though I uninstalled Copilot, the fact that Notepad had any hook at all to it was creepy and ridiculous. I now use Notepad3, which is great. Via: TechSpot: One of the first-party Microsoft […]
Discord Will Require a Face Scan or ID for Full Access Next Month
February 9th, 2026Via: The Verge: Discord announced on Monday that it’s rolling out age verification on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” experience unless they demonstrate that they’re adults. Users who aren’t verified as adults will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t […]
New York Budget Bill Proposes Mandatory File-Scanning Tech and In-Person Sales for 3D Printers
February 8th, 2026Via: Reclaim the Net: New York’s latest budget proposal would place new obligations on manufacturers of 3D printers and other digital fabrication equipment, tying the operation of these tools to mandatory software controls. The 2026–2027 executive budget bill, S.9005/A.10005, directs that devices sold in the state include “blocking technology” capable of scanning every design file […]
When Waymos Are Stumped, They Get Intervention From Workers in the Philippines
February 6th, 2026Via: Futurism: Waymo has established itself as the autonomous ride-hailing service to beat, operating a fleet of several thousand self-driving taxis across the United States, with active services in ten major metropolitan areas. That “self-driving” may be due for some extra scrutiny, though. During a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Waymo’s chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, […]
New Site Lets AI Rent Humans
February 6th, 2026I think that it’s not satire. Via: Futurism: The machines aren’t just coming for your jobs. Now, they want your bodies as well. That’s at least the hope of Alexander Liteplo, a software engineer and founder of RentAHuman.ai, a platform for AI agents to “search, book, and pay humans for physical-world tasks.” When Liteplo launched […]
SpaceX Acquires xAI in $1.25 Trillion Merger
February 3rd, 2026Via: Reuters: Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok ?chatbot. The deal, first reported by Reuters last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the […]
Finally, Some Possibly Good News About Firefox: AI Off Switch
February 2nd, 2026With the growing hostility toward AI slop creeping into everything, Mozilla might see an opportunity here to claw back some market share after years of steady decline. With Firefox, however, one must always be waiting for the other shoe to drop… Via: Mozilla: AI is changing the web, and people want very different things from […]
Notepad++ Official Update Mechanism Hijacked to Deliver Malware to Select Users
February 2nd, 2026Microsoft bad. Think outside the box. Turns out, there’s always another box. Via: The Hacker News: The maintainer of Notepad++ has revealed that state-sponsored attackers hijacked the utility’s update mechanism to redirect update traffic to malicious servers instead. “The attack involved [an] infrastructure-level compromise that allowed malicious actors to intercept and redirect update traffic destined […]
Video of Lockheed RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Drones Captured at Creech Air Force Base
January 31st, 2026RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Drone Supported Maduro Capture Mission: At least one, and possibly two, of the U.S. Air Force’s secretive RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drones appear to have taken part in last night’s operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Spotting an RQ-170 in the context of a real-world mission is very rare, […]
The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films
January 31st, 2026Via: The Atlantic: The attention-span crisis goes to the movies. Everyone knows it’s hard to get college students to do the reading—remember books? But the attention-span crisis is not limited to the written word. Professors are now finding that they can’t even get film students—film students—to sit through movies. “I used to think, If homework […]
