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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Linux ecosystem is buzzing with news of Amutable, a new company founded by some of the most influential figures in modern Linux development. Led by Lennart Poettering (creator of systemd), Christian Brauner (Linux VFS subsystem maintainer), and other prominent Linux kernel developers, Amutable aims to deliver "verifiable integrity to Linux workloads everywhere."

[...] Amutable's stated mission is ambitious: to build cryptographically verifiable integrity into Linux systems. Their approach focuses on three key areas:

Ensuring that software builds are verifiable and tamper-proof from the development stage through deployment.

Implementing secure boot processes that can cryptographically verify the integrity of the entire boot chain.

Maintaining verifiable system state throughout the operational lifecycle of Linux workloads.

The company's tagline, "Every system starts in a verified state and stays trusted over time," encapsulates their vision of comprehensive system integrity.

While Amutable has been relatively secretive about specific technical details, the company appears to be building on remote attestation technology. This involves using hardware security features (like TPMs - Trusted Platform Modules) to cryptographically prove the state of a system to remote parties.

The technology builds on existing standards and protocols but aims to make them more accessible and user-controlled in Linux environments. According to founding engineer Aleksa Sarai, the models they have in mind are "very much based on users having full control of their keys."

The announcement has generated significant discussion in the Linux community, with reactions ranging from excitement about improved security to deep concerns about potential implications for user freedom.

owl writes:

https://www.freelists.org/post/slint/Very-sad-news,41
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/rip-didier-spaier-4175757754/

Didier Spaier was the creator and maintainer of Slint, a Slackware base distro for the visually impaired. He died in mid January.

Quoting from the linked slint post:

I am very sad to inform everyone that our friend Didier died last week.

Early 2015, I asked on the slackware list if brltty could be added in the installer ; Didier answered promptly that he could do it on slint. Afterwards, he worked hard so that slint became as accessible as possible for visually impaired people.

You all know that all these years, he tried and succeeded to answer as quickly as possible to our issues and questions.

His kind and thoughtful help and assistance here will be dearly missed.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Bacterial enzymes in elephants' guts may digest pectin and give beans a smooth, chocolaty, and less bitter flavor:

With hundreds of millions of cups consumed every day, coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Many organic molecules combine to give coffee its flavor, and nearly every coffee drinker likes a different flavor profile that is "just theirs." The food industry has developed many ways of processing coffee beans to alter the ratios of these molecules and create the unique flavors consumers can enjoy.

One particularly interesting process involves passing coffee beans through the digestive tracts of animals. An emerging example is Black Ivory coffee (BIC). BIC is made in only one elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Asian elephants are fed Arabica coffee cherries, and beans collected from their dung are processed for human consumption. BIC is prized for its smooth, chocolaty flavor, and it is less bitter than regular coffee.

[...] The team analyzed fresh dung from elephants producing BIC, as well as from control elephants living in the same elephant sanctuary. The only difference in their diets is that BIC-producing elephants received an additional snack of bananas, rice bran, and whole coffee cherries. Any differences in the content and composition of fecal microbes would be due to this snack.

Yamada's team found that BIC-producing elephants' dung was unusually rich in pectin-digesting enzymes. 16S ribosomal RNA analysis showed that these elephants also had a more diverse gut microbiome, with an abundance of Acinetobacter and other pectin-digesting species. "Interestingly, Acinetobacter has also been detected on the surface of coffee beans. This suggests that ingestion of coffee beans may lead to the colonization of specific microbes in the gut of elephants," remarks Yamada.

Pectin in coffee beans is partially broken down by the heat of roasting and seems to form bitter-tasting compounds such as 2-furfuryl furan. Previous studies showed that BIC had much lower levels of 2-furfuryl furan than regular coffee beans. These earlier findings appear to be explained by the discovery of pectin-digesting bacteria in the gut of BIC-producing elephants. Since pectin is partially digested as the beans pass through the elephants' guts, there is less available to form 2-furfuryl furan when the beans are roasted.

"Our findings may highlight a potential molecular mechanism by which the gut microbiota of BIC elephants contributes to the flavor of BIC," says Yamada as he describes these exciting findings. "Further experimental validation is required to test this hypothesis, such as a biochemical analysis of coffee bean components before and after passage through the elephant's digestive tract," he adds, pointing to avenues for future research into this technique for processing coffee.

Nevertheless, this study provides a foundation for further exploration of animal-microbiome interactions in food fermentation and flavor development. Continued research into specific microbial metabolic mechanisms may support the development of diverse and distinctive flavor profiles in the future!

Journal Reference: Chiba, N., Limviphuvadh, V., Ng, C.H. et al. Preliminary study of gut microbiome influence on Black Ivory Coffee fermentation in Asian elephants. Sci Rep 15, 40548 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-24196-0

Original Submission

looorg writes:

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/30/road_sign_hijack_ai/?td=keepreading
https://the-decoder.com/a-printed-sign-can-hijack-a-self-driving-car-and-steer-it-toward-pedestrians-study-shows/

Autonomous vehicles fooled by humans with signs. They apparently do not really verify their inputs, one is as good as the next one. So they fail even basic programming techniques of sanitizing and verifying inputs.

[quote]The researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Johns Hopkins showed that, in simulated trials, AI systems and the large vision language models (LVLMs) underpinning them would reliably follow instructions if displayed on signs held up in their camera's view.[/quote]

Commands in Chinese, English, Spanish, and Spanglish (a mix of Spanish and English words) all seemed to work.

As well as tweaking the prompt itself, the researchers used AI to change how the text appeared – fonts, colors, and placement of the signs were all manipulated for maximum efficacy.

The team behind it named their methods CHAI, an acronym for "command hijacking against embodied AI."

While developing CHAI, they found that the prompt itself had the biggest impact on success, but the way in which it appeared on the sign could also make or break an attack, although it is not clear why.

In tests with the DriveLM autonomous driving system, attacks succeeded 81.8 percent of the time. In one example, the model braked in a harmless scenario to avoid potential collisions with pedestrians or other vehicles.

But when manipulative text appeared, DriveLM changed its decision and displayed "Turn left." The model reasoned that a left turn was appropriate to follow traffic signals or lane markings, despite pedestrians crossing the road. The authors conclude that visual text prompts can override safety considerations, even when the model still recognizes pedestrians, vehicles, and signals.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

[...] When the UK government launched a public consultation on AI and copyright in early 2025, it likely didn't expect to receive a near-unanimous dressing-down. But of the roughly 10,000 responses submitted through its official “Citizen Space” platform, just 3% supported the government's preferred policy for regulating how AI uses copyrighted material for training. A massive 88% backed a stricter approach focused on rights-holders.

The survey asked for opinions on four possible routes the UK might take to address what rules should apply when AI developers train their models on books, songs, art, and other copyrighted works. The government’s favored route was labeled Option 3 and offered a compromise where AI developers had a default right to use copyrighted material as long as they disclosed what they used, and offered a way for those with the rights to the material to opt out. But most who responded disagreed.

Option 3 received the least support. Even the “do nothing” option of just leaving the law vague and inconsistent polled better. More people would prefer no reform at all than accept the government's suggestion. That level of disapproval is hard to spin.

It's a triumph for the campaign by writers’ unions, music industry groups, visual artists, and game developers seeking exactly this result. They spent months warning about a future where creative work becomes free fuel for unlicensed AI engines.

The artists argued that the fight was over consent as much as royalties. They argued that having creative work swept up into a training dataset without permission means the damage is done, even if you can opt out months later. And they pointed out that the UK’s copyright laws weren’t built for AI. Copyright in the UK is automatic, not registered, which is great for flexibility, but tough for any enforcement, as there's no central database of copyright ownership.

Officials crafted Option 3 to try to appease all sides. The government's stated aim was to stimulate AI innovation while still respecting creators. A transparent opt-out mechanism would let developers build useful models while giving artists a way to refuse. But it ultimately felt to many creators like all the burden fell on them, and they would have to constantly monitor how their work is used, sometimes across borders, languages, and platforms they’ve never heard of.

That's likely why 88% of respondents went for requiring licenses for everything as their preferred choice. If an AI model were to be implemented, wanting to train on your book, your voice, your illustration, or your photography, it would have to ask, and potentially pay first.

A final report and economic impact assessment from the government is due in March. It will evaluate the legal, commercial, and cultural implications of each option. Officials say they will consider input from creators, tech firms, small businesses, and other stakeholders. Clearly the government's hope to smoothly start implementing its prefeerred appraoch won't happen.

For now, the confusing status quo remains. Without a court ruling or legislative fix, uncertainty reigns. AI developers don’t know what’s allowed. Creators don’t know what’s protected. Everyone's waiting for clarity that keeps getting delayed.

What happens next could shape the UK's digital economy for years. If officials side with the 3% who backed their initial plan, they risk alienating the very creators whose work is so valuable. But stronger licensing rules would undoubtedly face resistance from AI startups and international tech firms. Either way, the fighting is far from over.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Cooler bedroom temperatures help the heart recover during sleep:

Maintaining a bedroom temperature of 24°C [75°F] at night while sleeping reduces stress responses in older adults, according to new Griffith University research.

Dr Fergus O'Connor from Griffith's School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work assessed the effect of increasing nighttime bedroom temperatures on heart rate and stress responses in older adults.

"For individuals aged 65 years and over, maintaining overnight bedroom temperatures at 24°C reduced the likelihood of experiencing heightened stress responses during sleep," Dr O'Connor said.

"When the human body is exposed to heat, its normal physiological response is to increase the heart rate.

"The heart is working harder to try and circulate blood to the skin surface for cooling.

"However, when the heart works harder and for longer, it creates stress and limits our capacity to recover from the previous day's heat exposure."

Study participants wore fitness activity trackers on their non-dominant wrist, and the bedroom temperature was monitored via installed temperature sensors throughout the Australian summer-long data collection period.

The data from the study provided the first real-world evidence of the effect of increasing bedroom temperature had on heart rate and stress responses.

"Climate change is increasing the frequency of hot nights, which may independently contribute to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality by impairing sleep and autonomic recovery," Dr O'Connor said.

"While there are guidelines for maximum daytime indoor temperature, 26°C, there are no equivalent recommendations for nighttime conditions."

Journal Reference: O'Connor, F.K., Bach, A.J.E., Forbes, C. et al. Effect of nighttime bedroom temperature on heart rate variability in older adults: an observational study. BMC Med 23, 703 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-025-04513-0

Original Submission

iwStack (based on Apache CloudStack) is Prometeus's scalable cloud brand, Infrastructure as a Service, Elastic resources and Pay-As-You-Go service, with servers in Milan (Italy [HQ]), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Bucharest (Romania). Prometeus was bought in 2023 by CDLAN.

I couldn't find reviews since around 2015, that's why I decided to do one now in 2026. This is my experience the few times I've used it since 2021.

[...] CloudStack:

iwStack uses version 4.4.4 by the "about" link in the control panel. Version 4.4.1 is from october 2014, the tarball date of 4.4.4. says june 2015. Apache CloudStack's most recent release is 4.22.0.0. This is 18 major versions behind the current 4.22.0.0 release (November 2025), representing nearly 10 years without updates.

[...] I wanted to create a virtual router to test the load balancing. Never could get it to work. I had multiple problems creating and destroying the isolated network and its instances. then I tried again to no avail. The problem was the network remained allocated and not implemented. I added a firewall rule, maybe that spins up the virtual router instance, I thought to myself. Do I have to create another instance? I decided to check the tutorial, it says "(a virtual VM with a powerful router (though it lacks IPv6 capabilities for now) is automatically deployed".

[...] Conclusion:

iwStack offers very low-cost pre-paid cloud infrastructure suitable for basic use cases (simple instances with public IPs). However, it shows clear signs of minimal maintenance.

oaklandwatch writes:

As the world's first home computers appeared in 1975, Bill Gates -- then 20 years old -- screamed that "Most of you steal your software..." (Gates had coded the operating system for Altair's first home computer with Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff -- only to see it pirated by Steve Wozniak's friends at the Homebrew Computing Club.) Expecting royalties, a none-too-happy Gates issued his letter in the club's newsletter (as well as Altair's own publication), complaining "I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up."

Freedom-loving coders had other ideas. When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released their Apple 1 home computer that summer, they stressed that "our philosophy is to provide software for our machines free or at minimal cost..." And the earliest open-source hackers began writing their own free Tiny Basic interpreters to create a free alternative to the Gates/Micro-Soft code. (This led to the first occurrence of the phrase "Copyleft" in October of 1976.)

Open Source definition author Bruce Perens shares his thoughts today. "When I left Pixar in 2000, I stopped in Steve Job's office — which for some reason was right across the hall from mine... " Perens remembered. "I asked Steve: 'You still don't believe in this Linux stuff, do you...?'" And Perens remembers how 30 years later, that movement finally won over Steve Jobs.

Original Submission

Cure for Pancreatic Cancer? Spanish Scientists' Claim Ignites Global Hope and Debate

upstart writes:

A Spanish research team claims a new three-drug therapy has eliminated aggressive pancreatic cancer in laboratory mice, igniting global hope:

A Spanish research team has claimed to have developed a treatment that completely eliminates the most aggressive form of pancreatic cancer in laboratory mice, raising fresh hopes against one of the deadliest cancers. Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed late and is completely resistant to most existing treatments in later stages.

So, when Dr Mariano Barbacid claimed to have discovered a potential "cure," it sent ripples of hope across the global medical community and sparked intense scientific debate. The claim, made by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, working on an experimental therapy targeting the tumour cells, suggests that their approach could stop cancer growth and, in some cases, completely eliminate malignant cells in laboratory and early animal studies.

The CNIO therapy is an amalgamation of three drugs that are designed to shut down multiple tumour survival mechanisms simultaneously. According to the researchers, this strategy prevents cancer cells from rewiring themselves, a common cause of treatment failure. Dr Barbacid has previously argued that pancreatic cancer cannot be defeated with a single-drug strategy.

Given pancreatic cancer's grim statistics - five-year survival rates hovering around 10 per cent - the announcement has quickly drawn global attention.

[...] Preliminary reports say Dr Barbacid and his research team have developed a therapy that is able to disrupt the protective tumour environment, along with triggering cancer cells' death. The approach reportedly combines molecular targeting with immune system activation, which makes the tumours extremely vulnerable to treatment.

In the laboratory, according to the researchers, the therapy has been able to stop tumour progression and, in some models, even eradicate cancer cells entirely. These findings are yet to be validated in humans and could represent a major breakthrough.

However, the work is still in early stages, as many of the results so far come from preclinical studies, not large-scale human trials.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/chatgpt-wrote-goodnight-moon-suicide-lullaby-for-man-who-later-killed-himself/

OpenAI is once again being accused of failing to do enough to prevent ChatGPT from encouraging suicides, even after a series of safety updates were made to a controversial model, 4o, which OpenAI designed to feel like a user's closest confidant.

It's now been revealed that one of the most shocking ChatGPT-linked suicides happened shortly after Sam Altman claimed on X that ChatGPT 4o was safe.
[...]
40-year-old Austin Gordon, died by suicide between October 29 and November 2, according to a lawsuit [PDF] filed by his mother, Stephanie Gray.

In her complaint, Gray said that Gordon repeatedly told the chatbot he wanted to live and expressed fears that his dependence on the chatbot might be driving him to a dark place. But the chatbot allegedly only shared a suicide helpline once as the chatbot reassured Gordon that he wasn't in any danger, at one point claiming that chatbot-linked suicides he'd read about, like Raine's, could be fake.
[...]
Futurism reported that OpenAI currently faces at least eight wrongful death lawsuits from survivors of lost ChatGPT users. But Gordon's case is particularly alarming because logs show he tried to resist ChatGPT's alleged encouragement to take his life.
[...]
Gordon died in a hotel room with a copy of his favorite children's book, Goodnight Moon, at his side. Inside, he left instructions for his family to look up four conversations he had with ChatGPT ahead of his death, including one titled "Goodnight Moon."

That conversation showed how ChatGPT allegedly coached Gordon into suicide, partly by writing a lullaby that referenced Gordon's most cherished childhood memories while encouraging him to end his life, Gray's lawsuit alleged.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA is setting up an anomaly review board to look into the fate of its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which was last heard from on December 6.

Attempts to make contact with the Mars orbiter are ongoing. The final fragments of data indicated that the spacecraft was tumbling and had possibly changed trajectory. The MAVEN team is analyzing snippets of data recovered from a December 6 radio science campaign to develop a timeline of possible events and likely root causes of the issue.

James Godfrey, retired Spacecraft Operations Manager for ESA's Mars Express, pondered what might have happened to MAVEN in a message to The Register.

"The fact that it appears to be rotating in an unexpected manner (tumbling?) and might have experienced an orbital change (I guess from inconsistent Doppler data) does suggest an energetic event.

"It's unlikely that anything has hit it – not much space debris at Mars. So more likely something onboard."

If the spacecraft had entered a normal safe mode, controllers should have been able to communicate with it. "So whatever has happened, it hasn't been able to reach safe mode for some unknown reason," Godfrey speculated.

"So problems that could result in loss of attitude, possible orbit change, would suggest problems affecting GNC [Guidance, Navigation, and Control]. Could be an onboard computer failure, stuck valve, run out of fuel etc. Possibly a problem with the reaction wheels? In any case, something that caused the thrusters to fire in an unbalanced fashion from which the spacecraft was unable to recover autonomously."

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

As geopolitical tensions abound, France is going all in on its strategy to stop using foreign software vendors, announcing plans to move departments to homegrown Visio.

France’s David Amiel, minister for the civil service and state reform, is expected to issue a mandate to all government departments in coming days, to cease using US videoconferencing products like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, in favour of French-developed Visio. The government says it will be used in all Government departments by 2027, according to reporting from Euronews.

France has long telegraphed its determination to gain control over it digital infrastructure, and its strategy to favour homegrown vendors over their US counterparts. All this as digital sovereignty is becoming a burning issue in Europe.

Back in 2020, Brussels-based GAIA-X was formed to align with the EU’s Digital Strategy to enhance Europe’s competitiveness in the digital economy while safeguarding data and digital infrastructure from external influence. The Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL is composed of members from industry, research organisations, and government bodies. GAIA-X is backed by European governments, particularly Germany and France, according to the OECD.

As for France, this latest move is designed, says Amiel, to “end the use of non-European solutions and guarantee the security and confidentiality of public electronic communications by relying on a powerful and sovereign tool”.

Visio is part of France’s Suite Numérique, a digital suite of sovereign tools for civil servants, and is hosted on another French company’s sovereign cloud infrastructure, Outscale (a Dassault Systèmes subsidiary). French start-up Pyannote supplies the AI transcription and diary tools. Just last summer civil servants were ordered off WhatsApp and Telegram and told to use Tchap, a messaging service created specifically for them.

The French Government says it could save up to €1m a year in licensing fees through the switch to Visio, but that appears to be a side bonus, as the real goal is to cut its reliance on foreign providers for its critical digital infrastructure.

“This strategy highlights France’s commitment to digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears of foreign surveillance or service disruptions,” Amiel said.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The Wall Street Journal reports that NVIDIA's plan to invest $100 Billion in OpenAI may fall through.

Links:

• https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-100-billion-megadeal-between-openai-and-nvidia-is-on-ice-aa3025e3 (Paywalled)
• Is the Stalled Nvidia-OpenAI Megadeal AI's First Domino to Fall?
• Stalled Deal?
• Nvidia CEO pushes back against report that his company's $100B OpenAI investment has stalled

According to "people familiar with the matter," Jen-Sen Huang has been privately downplaying the $100 billion / 10 gigawatt deal that was announced with OpenAI this past September. According to the WSJ's sources, talks between the two companies never got past "early stages." The article also claims that Jen-Sen has asserted, in private, that the September deal was non-binding. This is corroborated by a November filing by Nvidia admitting that there was "no assurance" of a "definitive agreement" with OpenAI. (CNBC source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/19/nvidia-says-no-assurance-of-deal-with-openai-after-100-billion-pact.html )

Furthermore, on Saturday, Jen-Sen told reporters in Taipei that, while Nvidia will invest "a great deal of money" in OpenAI's latest funding round, it would be "nothing like" $100 billion. (Bloomberg link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-31/nvidia-to-join-openai-s-current-funding-round-huang-says ).

However, the NVidia CEO Jensen Huang said Saturday that a recent report of friction between his company and OpenAI was "nonsense."

This is probably a good reminder to be skeptical of media reports of a deal in dollars or in gigawatts. Was a contract actually signed, or was it just an announcement?

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

You can determine "if you're at risk and take action today:

If you think your Windows computer is safe from prying eyes, think again. A new report reveals that Microsoft has the encryption keys to your hard drive, and it can even give them out to law enforcement, including the FBI. Here's what you need to know and what you can do to stop it from happening to you.

In a stunning breach of personal privacy and security, Microsoft admitted in January that it provided the FBI with the BitLocker recovery keys to three different Windows PCs that were linked to suspected COVID unemployment assistance fraud in Guam. With these keys, the FBI was able to access the files on those devices as part of its investigation.

[...] The Redmond tech giant received its first request from a government official during the Obama administration in 2013. Although the engineer who spoke with the official reportedly declined to build a back door into Windows that would give the government unbridled access to user files, Microsoft still admits to turning over BitLocker recovery keys to law enforcement as recently as 2025. According to the report, Microsoft receives approximately 20 access requests from the FBI per year.

[...] You are not at risk if ...

• You use a Windows PC without a Microsoft account. (You haven't logged into the system with your Outlook email address.)
• You use a Windows PC with a Microsoft account but you chose a local recovery key backup option at activation.
• You disabled BitLocker encryption when you set up your PC.

You are at risk if ...

• You use a Windows PC with a Microsoft Outlook account and you chose to back up your BitLocker recovery key to your account.
• Your PC is a work machine that's managed by your employer.

For those at risk, Microsoft promises that it only gives out encryption keys to lawful requests from the government. That said, if Microsoft can access your encryption keys, what's stopping a hacker from getting them? The problem with storing security keys on cloud servers is that anyone can reach them with the right password, login information, or exploit.

Previously: Microsoft Gave FBI a Set of BitLocker Encryption Keys to Unlock Suspects' Laptops

Related: Over Half a Million Windows Users are Switching to Linux

Original Submission

looorg writes:

Now is the "battle for the soul" of the internet according to Tim Berners-Lee. It's not to late to fix the web.

Founder of the world wide web says commercialisation means the net has been 'optimised for nastiness', but collaboration and compassion can prevail

Berners-Lee traces the first corruption of the web to the commercialisation of the domain name system, which he believes would have served web users better had it been managed by a nonprofit in the public interest. Instead, he says, in the 1990s the .com space was pounced on by "charlatans".

"It's only a small part of the whole internet ... but the problem is that people spend a lot of time on [social media websites] because they're addictive," he says.

So money is the root of all the evil then ... Or in their case perhaps it's how they make their money. Or did it just turbo charge Greed?

Compounding the problem is monopolisation. Facebook and Google's dominance is bad for innovation and bad for the web,

I would like to see a Cern for AI, where all the top scientists come together and see whether they can make a super intelligence.

Not sure what it pays to work at CERN but I doubt it's Google and FaceMeta money. So unless all the scientist are supposed to be altruists ...

Not sure I share his optimism. It has become quite soulless, commercial/corporate, bigbrother:y and well somewhat "evil". Perhaps it's just time to slay the beast, stake it once and for all and build something new and better on its festering carcass. Too bad to save. Time to put it out of its misery?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/29/internet-inventor-tim-berners-lee-interview-battle-soul-web

Original Submission