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- [jasassin] AI real life experience or
- [turgid] Network Byte Order
- [mcgrew] Disgusting
- [janrinok] Responses to AC Questions
- [Gaaark] If everyone around you is a loser or weak or stupid...
- [kolie] Follow-up: The "Dead" SSD is a Zombie (Consumer SSDs in Ente
- [Rich] Framework, take my money!
- [fliptop] Charging Overnight: Rivian Dealership Learns the Hard Way
- [khallow] A view into a "moral panic"
- [Ingar] Kenobi
- [Tork] Ruby the AI Comedian, Tork's original comic!
- [liar] Politics and AI data centers
- [jelizondo] A House of Dynamtte
- [Mojibake Tengu] Almost Human
- [quietus] Cargo Cult Society
Older Stuff
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Friday December 19 -
Thursday December 18- Forget Flowers: These Ancient Plants Attract Pollinators by Getting Hot (1)
- Foxconn is Building a Massive Factory in KY, but Probably Not for Apple (7)
- The Tor Project is Making a Switch to Rust, Ditches C (13)
- Ford Cancels Electric F-150 (38)
- After 50 Years, MIT Chemists Finally Synthesize Elusive Anti-Cancer Compound (9)
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Wednesday December 17- This Group Pays Bounties to Repair Broken Devices—Even If the Fix Breaks the Law (32)
- Norovirus Cases Surging in U.S. (11)
- Verizon Refused to Unlock Man's iPhone, So He Sued the Carrier and Won (5)
- A Simple Pill Could Replace Injections for Treating Gonorrhea (7)
- Australians Install 100,000 Home Battery Systems in 17 Weeks, and They Are Getting Bigger (28)
-
Tuesday December 16
Quick Links
Google is discontinuing its "dark web report" security tool, stating that it wants to focus on other tools it believes are more helpful.
Google's dark web report tool is a security feature that notifies users if their email address or other personal information was found on the dark web.
After Google scans the dark web and identifies your personal information, it will notify you where the data was found and what type of data was exposed, encouraging users to take action to protect their data.
For example, if Google identifies your email on the dark web, you will be advised to turn on two-step authentication to protect your Google account.
Google sunsets the dark web report toolIn an email seen by BleepingComputer, Google confirmed it will stop monitoring for new dark web results on January 15, 2026, and its data will no longer be available from February 16, 2026.
"We are discontinuing the dark web report, which was meant to scan the dark web for your personal information," reads an email seen by BleepingComputer.
"It will stop monitoring for new results on January 15, 2026 and its data will no longer be available from February 16, 2026. While the report offered general information, feedback showed that it did not provide helpful next steps."
"We're making this change to instead focus on tools that give you more clear, actionable steps to protect your information online. We will continue to track and defend you from online threats, including the dark web, and build tools that help protect you and your personal information."
Google will continue to invest in other tools, such as Google Password Manager and the Password Checkup tool.
"In the meantime, we encourage you to use the existing tools we offer to strengthen your security and privacy, including Security and Privacy Checkups, Passkey, 2-Step Verification, Google Password Manager, and Password Checkup," Google explained in an email.
Google says users can also use the "Results about you" tool to find and request the removal of their personal information from Google Search results, like their phone number and home address.
However, some of you might miss Google's dark web report, which notified users even when their address was found on the dark web.
In addition, Google's dark web report consolidated all potential dark web leaks in one place so that you could act quickly.
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Senators demand Big Tech pay upfront for data center spikes in electricity bills:
Senators launched a probe Tuesday [December 16, 2025] demanding that tech companies explain exactly how they plan to prevent data center projects from increasing electricity bills in communities where prices are already skyrocketing.
In letters to seven AI firms, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) cited a study estimating that "electricity prices have increased by as much as 267 percent in the past five years" in "areas located near significant data center activity."
Prices increase, senators noted, when utility companies build out extra infrastructure to meet data centers' energy demands—which can amount to one customer suddenly consuming as much power as an entire city. They also increase when demand for local power outweighs supply. In some cases, residents are blindsided by higher bills, not even realizing a data center project was approved, because tech companies seem intent on dodging backlash and frequently do not allow terms of deals to be publicly disclosed.
AI firms "ask public officials to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) preventing them from sharing information with their constituents, operate through what appear to be shell companies to mask the real owner of the data center, and require that landowners sign NDAs as part of the land sale while telling them only that a 'Fortune 100 company' is planning an 'industrial development' seemingly in an attempt to hide the very existence of the data center," senators wrote.
States like Virginia with the highest concentration of data centers could see average electricity prices increase by another 25 percent by 2030, senators noted. But price increases aren't limited to the states allegedly striking shady deals with tech companies and greenlighting data center projects, they said. "Interconnected and interstate power grids can lead to a data center built in one state raising costs for residents of a neighboring state," senators reported.
Under fire for supposedly only pretending to care about keeping neighbors' costs low were Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Equinix, Digital Realty, and CoreWeave. Senators accused firms of paying "lip service," claiming that they would do everything in their power to avoid increasing residential electricity costs, while actively lobbying to pass billions in costs on to their neighbors.
For example, Amazon publicly claimed it would "make sure" it would cover costs so they wouldn't be passed on. But it's also a member of an industry lobbying group, the Data Center Coalition, that "has opposed state regulatory decisions requiring data center companies to pay a higher percentage of costs upfront," senators wrote. And Google made similar statements, despite having an executive who opposed a regulatory solution that would set data centers into their own "rate class"—and therefore responsible for grid improvement costs that could not be passed on to other customers—on the grounds that it was supposedly "discriminatory."
"The current, socialized model of electricity ratepaying," senators explained—where costs are shared across all users—"was not designed for an era where just one customer requires the same amount of electricity as some of the largest cities in America."
Particularly problematic, senators emphasized, were reports that tech firms were getting discounts on energy costs as utility companies competed for their business, while prices went up for their neighbors.
[...] Requiring upfront payment is especially critical, senators noted, since some tech firms have abandoned data center projects, leaving local customers to bear the costs of infrastructure changes without utility companies ever generating any revenue. Communities must also consider that AI firms' projected energy demand could severely dip if enterprise demand for AI falls short of expectations, AI capabilities "plateau" and trigger widespread indifference, AI companies shift strategies "away from scaling computer power," or chip companies "find innovative ways to make AI more energy-efficient."
"If data centers end up providing less business to the utility companies than anticipated, consumers could be left with massive electricity bills as utility companies recoup billions in new infrastructure costs, with nothing to show for it," senators wrote.
Already, Utah, Oregon, and Ohio have passed laws "creating a separate class of utility customer for data centers which includes basic financial safeguards such as upfront payments and longer contract length," senators noted, and Virginia is notably weighing a similar law.
At least one study, The New York Times noted, suggested that data centers may have recently helped reduce electricity costs by spreading the costs of upgrades over more customers, but those outcomes varied by state and could not account for future AI demand.
"It remains unclear whether broader, sustained load growth will increase long-run average costs and prices," Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers concluded. "In some cases, spikes in load growth can result in significant, near-term retail price increase."
Until companies prove they're paying their fair share, senators expect electricity bills to keep climbing, particularly in vulnerable areas. That will likely only increase pressure for regulators to intervene, the director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program, Ari Peskoe, suggested in September.
"The utility business model is all about spreading costs of system expansion to everyone, because we all benefit from a reliable, robust electricity system," Peskoe said. "But when it's a single consumer that is using so much energy—basically that of an entire city—and when that new city happens to be owned by the wealthiest corporations in the world, I think it's time to look at the fundamental assumptions of utility regulation and make sure that these facilities are really paying for all of the infrastructure costs to connect them to the system and to power them."
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On Thursday, Google announced Disco, an experimental web browser that juggles dozens of open tabs while researching topics or planning trips. This is yet another AI browser, with the main feature being GenTabs, which is based on Gemini 3.
GenTabs processes everything you do through your open tabs and chat history, then automatically creates interactive web applications tailored to that task. You don't have to code anything; instead, you describe what you need in plain language, and GenTabs builds it.
Amid an influx of AI browsers, Google knows where Disco stands. "It's early, and not everything will work perfectly," reads a statement from Chrome and Creative Lab leaders Manini Roy and Amit Pitaru. "We're starting with a small cohort of testers, and their feedback will help us understand what's useful, what needs work, and what they'd like to see in the future."
Disco is starting small with a cohort of testers on macOS. If that's your preferred operating system, you can join the waitlist through Google Labs.
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from the what-happens-underground-should-stay-underground dept.
https://thenaturenetwork.co.uk/the-secret-life-of-moles-what-theyre-really-up-to-underground/
While you're walking above ground, completely unaware, an entire civilisation of furry engineers is constructing elaborate tunnel networks beneath your feet. Moles live in a hidden world that's far more complex and fascinating than most people realise. Here's what they're up to while we're not paying attention (or aren't even aware they're there!).
They're building underground cities with specific room purposes.
Mole tunnel systems aren't random burrows; they're carefully planned communities with designated areas for sleeping, food storage, waste disposal, and nurseries. These underground cities can span several acres with multiple levels and connecting corridors.
Each tunnel serves a specific function, from hunting highways to emergency escape routes. The main tunnels act like underground motorways, while smaller offshoots serve as dining rooms where moles pause to eat captured prey.
They can dig 18 feet of tunnel in a single hour.
Moles are incredibly efficient excavators, capable of moving astonishing amounts of soil in very short periods. Their powerful front paws and specialised shoulder structure allow them to literally swim through earth like water. Their digging speed means the tunnel network under your garden could expand dramatically overnight. A single mole can create 150 feet of new tunnels in just one day when conditions are right.
They're nearly blind but navigate using supersonic senses.
Moles have tiny eyes that can barely detect light and dark, but they navigate their dark world using incredibly sensitive touch and vibration detection. Their snouts contain over 100,000 nerve fibres, which is six times more than human hands. They can sense earthworm movement from several inches away and detect the slightest vibrations through the soil. This sensory system is so precise, they can hunt effectively in complete darkness underground.
They maintain underground food pantries with live storage.
Moles don't just eat what they catch immediately. Instead, they create sophisticated food storage systems with paralysed but living earthworms. Their saliva contains toxins that immobilise prey without killing it, keeping meat fresh for weeks. These underground larders can contain hundreds of stored earthworms, providing reliable food supplies during harsh weather when hunting becomes difficult. It's essentially a living refrigerator system beneath the ground.
They're territorial loners who fight viciously over boundaries.
Despite living in elaborate tunnel systems, moles are fiercely solitary creatures who will fight to the death to defend their territory from other moles. These underground battles can be surprisingly brutal for such small animals. Only during mating season do moles tolerate each other's presence, and even then, interactions are brief and often aggressive. The tunnel networks you see are typically maintained by a single mole defending its exclusive hunting grounds.
They consume their own body weight in food every single day.
Moles have extremely high metabolisms and must eat constantly to survive. They'll literally starve to death if they go more than 12 hours without food. This means they're hunting almost continuously during their active periods. Their diet consists primarily of earthworms, but they'll also eat grubs, insects, and other soil-dwelling creatures. A single mole can consume over 200 earthworms in a single day while maintaining its underground territory.
They recycle their tunnel air through sophisticated ventilation systems.
Moles create complex air circulation systems in their tunnels, with specific shafts designed to bring fresh air down and push stale air up to the surface. These ventilation networks ensure adequate oxygen levels throughout their underground cities. Some tunnel systems include air pockets and chambers specifically designed for air circulation. Moles will also deliberately create surface openings that function as natural air conditioning systems for their underground homes.
They have built-in heating systems in their fur.
Mole fur is incredibly dense, thicker than seal fur, and can be brushed in any direction without showing grain. This unique fur structure traps air so efficiently that moles maintain body temperature even in cold, damp underground conditions.
Their fur also repels dirt and moisture, allowing them to move through soil without getting dirty or waterlogged. The fur structure is so effective that moles can work in near-freezing underground conditions without losing body heat.
They create emergency escape routes throughout their territory.
Mole tunnel systems include multiple exit strategies and dead-end chambers designed for hiding from predators. These emergency tunnels often connect to the surface in hidden locations away from main activity areas.
Some tunnels serve exclusively as escape routes and are only used when moles detect threats above ground. These backup systems allow moles to evacuate quickly if their main tunnels are compromised by predators or human activity.
They modify soil chemistry as they dig.
Mole activity significantly changes soil composition and drainage patterns in their territory. Their constant digging mixes soil layers, improves aeration, and creates channels that affect how water moves through the ground.
Their waste and the organic matter they bring underground alter soil pH and nutrient levels. Areas with active mole populations often have notably different soil chemistry than surrounding areas without mole activity.
They can hold their breath for extended periods underwater.
When tunnels flood during heavy rains, moles can survive underwater for several minutes by slowing their heart rate and conserving oxygen. They're actually quite capable swimmers when necessary. Their tunnel systems often include drainage areas and elevated chambers specifically designed to handle flooding. Moles can retreat to these dry areas and wait out flood conditions while continuing to hunt in unaffected tunnel sections.
They communicate through seismic vibrations.
Moles send messages to each other by creating specific vibration patterns in the soil using their digging motions. These underground communications can travel surprising distances through connected tunnel networks. Different vibration patterns convey different messages: think territorial warnings, mating calls, or danger alerts. This seismic communication system allows moles to coordinate activity and avoid conflicts without direct contact.
They're ecosystem engineers who dramatically alter underground environments.
Mole activity affects far more than just earthworm populations. They influence root growth patterns, water drainage, soil aeration, and the distribution of underground nutrients. Their presence shapes entire underground ecosystems.
Plant roots often follow mole tunnels, taking advantage of the improved soil structure and drainage. Many underground insects and small creatures use abandoned mole tunnels as highways, creating interconnected underground communities that wouldn't exist without mole engineering.
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from the only-US-law-the-copyright-terms-in-other-countries-are-different dept.
It is that time of the year again and as the new year starts, Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain reminds us that works from 1930 ascend to public domain. These works become available for use by any and all in any manner they may wish.
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon.[3] The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee. Below you can find lists of some of the most notable books, characters, comics, and cartoons, films, songs, sound recordings, and art entering the public domain.[4] After each of them, we have provided an analysis of their significance. At the end of the article, we explain:
Why all of this matters
How do copyright and trademark law apply to characters?
What is the impact of the long copyright term?
What are the basic rules for determining whether something is public domain?
Conclusion
Previously:
(2022) Public Domain Day 2022
(2021) Public Domain Day in the USA: Works from 1925 are Open to All!
(2020) January 1, 2020 is Public Domain Day: Works From 1924 Are Open to All!
(2018) Public Domain Day is Coming
(2018) Public Domain Day, 2018
(2016) The Public Domain Once Again Loses In The New Year
(2014) Happy Public Domain Day: Here are the Works that Copyright Extension Stole From You in 2015
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A security researcher said Home Depot exposed access to its internal systems for a year after one of its employees published a private access token online, likely by mistake. The researcher found the exposed token and tried to privately alert Home Depot to its security lapse but was ignored for several weeks.
The exposure is now fixed after TechCrunch contacted company representatives last week.
Security researcher Ben Zimmermann told TechCrunch that, in early November, he found a published GitHub access token belonging to a Home Depot employee, which was exposed sometime in early 2024.
When he tested the token, Zimmermann said that it granted access to hundreds of private Home Depot source code repositories hosted on GitHub and allowed the ability to modify their contents.
The researcher said the keys allowed access to Home Depot's cloud infrastructure, including its order fulfillment and inventory management systems, and code development pipelines, among other systems. Home Depot has hosted much of its developer and engineering infrastructure on GitHub since 2015, according to a customer profile on GitHub's website.
Zimmermann said he sent several emails to Home Depot but didn't hear back.
Nor did he get a response from Home Depot's chief information security officer, Chris Lanzilotta, after sending a message over LinkedIn.
Zimmermann told TechCrunch that he has disclosed several similar exposures in recent months to companies, which have thanked him for his findings.
"Home Depot is the only company that ignored me," he said.
Given that Home Depot does not have a way to report security flaws, such as a vulnerability disclosure or bug bounty program, Zimmermann contacted TechCrunch in an effort to get the exposure fixed.
When reached by TechCrunch on December 5, Home Depot spokesperson George Lane acknowledged receipt of our email but did not respond to follow-up emails asking for comment. The exposed token is no longer online, and the researcher said the token's access was revoked soon after our outreach.
We also asked Lane if Home Depot has the technical means, such as logs, to determine if anyone else used the token during the months it was left online to access any of Home Depot's internal systems. We did not hear back.
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https://linuxiac.com/ventoy-1-1-09-released-with-experimental-btrfs-support/
Ventoy 1.1.09 is out with fixes for openSUSE 16.0 boot issues, Arch Linux persistence problems, and early experimental Btrfs support.
Ventoy, the popular multi-boot utility for creating bootable USB drives from ISO files, has just released a brand-new version, 1.1.09, with the most notable addition being experimental support for the Btrfs file system. However, at this stage, the implementation is deliberately limited.
Ventoy only supports Btrfs in single, non-RAID mode, and ISO files stored on Btrfs volumes cannot be compressed. The project stresses that this functionality is still experimental and intended for early testing rather than production use.
On the compatibility front, Ventoy 1.1.09 resolves a boot issue affecting openSUSE Leap 16.0, restoring the ability to start installation and live images reliably on systems impacted by the regression.
Another important fix addresses a problem where the persistence plugin failed to work with recent Arch Linux releases, a change that should be particularly relevant for users relying on persistent live environments.
Lastly, the update includes fixes for display bugs in the VentoyPlugson WebUI, improving usability when managing plugins and configuration through the browser interface.
For more about the new Ventoy 1.1.09 release, see the changelog. Downloads are available from the project's website.
At the same time, the Ventoy project continues to develop iVentoy, an enhanced PXE server and its companion solution for network-based operating system deployment. It supports Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI, and ARM64 UEFI modes, and is compatible with more than 110 common operating system types, including Windows, WinPE, Linux, and VMware images.
= Links in article:
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Tanning bed users are known to have a higher risk of skin cancer, but for the first time researchers have found that young indoor tanners undergo genetic changes that can lead to more mutations in their skin cells than people twice their age.
The study, which was led by UC San Francisco and Northwestern University, appears Dec. 12 in Science Advances.
"We found that tanning bed users in their 30s and 40s had even more mutations than people in the general population who were in their 70s and 80s," said Bishal Tandukar, PhD, a UCSF postdoctoral scholar in Dermatology who is the co-first author of the study. "In other words, the skin of tanning bed users appeared decades older at the genetic level."
Such mutations can lead to skin cancer, which is the most common cancer in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. Among those skin cancers is melanoma, which accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but causes most of the deaths. About 11,000 Americans die annually from melanoma, primarily from exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
UV radiation occurs naturally in sunlight, as well as in artificial light sources like tanning beds. Rates of melanoma have risen along with the use of tanning beds in recent years, disproportionately affecting young women, who are the main clients of the tanning industry.
[...] The young tanning bed users had more skin mutations than people twice their age, especially in their lower backs, an area that does not get much damage from sunlight but has a great deal of exposure from tanning beds.
"The skin of tanning bed users was riddled with the seeds of cancer — cells with mutations known to lead to melanoma," said senior author A. Hunter Shain, PhD, associate professor in the UCSF Department of Dermatology.
"We cannot reverse a mutation once it occurs, so it is essential to limit how many mutations accumulate in the first place," said Shain, whose laboratory focuses on the biology of skin cancer. "One of the simplest ways to do that is to avoid exposure to artificial UV radiation."
Journal Reference: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady4878
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https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/fake-leonardo-dicaprio-movie-torrent-agent-tesla-powershell
https://archive.vn/bPDJI
After noticing a spike in detections involving what looked like a movie torrent for One Battle After Another, Bitdefender researchers started an investigation and discovered that it was a complex infection chain.
The film, Leonardo DiCaprio's latest, has quickly gained notoriety, making it an attractive lure for cybercriminals seeking to infect as many devices as possible.
People often search for the latest movies on the internet, hoping to find a copy of a new release that has just begun its theater run or is only available via pay-per-view streaming. And since users are looking for entertainment, the possibility of infection from downloading a film might not cross their minds.
However, what seems like a simple download can quickly turn into something far more dangerous. Instead of the expected video file, users unknowingly download a compilation of PowerShell scripts and image archives that build into a memory-resident command-and-control (C2) agent, also known as a trojan (RAT – Remote Access Trojan) under the name of Agent Tesla.
This type of malware is designed with a single purpose: to provide attackers with unfettered access to the victim's Windows computer. Once they have a foothold, criminals can access the computer remotely and steal financial and personal information or use the device to launch additional attacks.
The trend of embedding malware in torrents and fake multimedia files that pretend to offer movies and TV shows is not new, but it has gained a lot of steam in the last year or so.
For example, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was used to spread the Lumma Stealer, which targets passwords, cookies, crypto wallets, credentials from remote desktop tools, and more.
The Agent Tesla malware in this fake movie release has been used for years in many campaigns, including email phishing and COVID-19 vaccination registration.
This investigation documents every layer of this new attack and shows how the components work together to support its efforts to evade detection.
Key findings
= The notoriety of Leonardo DiCaprio's new film, One Battle After Another, is being used to deploy malware on the Windows machines of unsuspecting users.
= The Agent Tesla RAT itself is not novel, but the deployment of consecutive attack methods leveraging PowerShell and other LOTL (Living Off the Land) tools is highly interesting.
= According to our insights, this particular type of attack has been used only in this torrent download.
= Payload execution is done entirely in memory.
= The attack demonstrates the use of multi-stage scripting, advanced obfuscation techniques, and fileless execution to evade detection and become persistent.
= The goal is to transform the Windows PC into a zombie agent, ready to be used at any time by attackers in other campaigns or to deploy malware further.
= The attack is directed at novices who don't often download pirated content or understand the dangers of torrents.Context
The infection begins when a user downloads a torrent that appears to contain the One Battle After Another film. Inside the downloaded content, the user will find a shortcut file simply named CD.lnk that indicates it is there to launch the movie.
Clicking on that file, however, triggers a hidden command chain that executes a series of malicious scripts buried inside the subtitle file Part2.subtitles.srt.
The attacker uses several legitimate Windows utilities (CMD, PowerShell, and Task Scheduler) to unpack multiple layers of encrypted data.
[Article continues with a detailed breakdown of the exploit]
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As described by https://www.motortrend.com/news/nissan-personalized-sound-app-audio-enhancement Nissan USA has updated their car audio--
You'll need to park in a quiet area, adjust the HVAC so no fans are running, and turn the volume to barely audible.
When all that's set, you tap when ready to start the two-minute hearing test. The program plays tones of varying loudness and pitch, emitting low, medium, and high frequencies. In each case, the listener taps the screen when the sounds become audible, and the program captures your hearing abilities and creates a bespoke audio experience from that data. Personalized Sound then uses the test results to generate a unique profile using a 10-band equalizer setup with frequencies ranging from 50 to 1,200 [sic--guessing 12,000] hertz. You can also create separate profiles for different drivers and set them as defaults depending on who's driving.
[...]
The free app was released today (Dec. 15) and can be downloaded to older models already on the road for no additional charge. The 2024 Nissan Rogue was the first to have Google built-in and it's also equipped in the 2025 and newer Nissan Armada, Murano, and Infiniti QX80. The 2026 models include the Nissan Leaf, Infiniti QX60, and the upcoming QX65.
Kudos to Nissan for distributing this free and skipping the whole pay-for-features that many car companies are using.
It's enough to get me thinking about a new Leaf...maybe in a few years when the initial BEV depreciation is past.
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iRobot Bankruptcy: Roomba Maker Files for Chapter 11, Picea Robotics to Acquire and Take Company Private
December 15, 2025 — iRobot, the Massachusetts-based company behind the Roomba robot vacuum, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States and struck a deal that will hand ownership to its primary contract manufacturer and secured lender, Shenzhen PICEA Robotics (Picea). The company says it expects no interruption to Roomba devices, app services, customer programs, or product support as the court-supervised restructuring plays out. [Reuters]
The move caps a steep reversal for one of consumer robotics' best-known pioneers. Once buoyed by pandemic-era demand and the near-household-name status of "Roomba," iRobot has struggled under the weight of pricing pressure, rising costs, and fierce competition in a robot vacuum market that has become crowded with feature-rich alternatives—many of them coming from China-based brands and supply chains.
Unlike a messy bankruptcy that drags on for years, iRobot says it has launched a pre-packaged Chapter 11 process in Delaware, backed by a Restructuring Support Agreement with Picea. In plain terms, much of the plan has been negotiated in advance, with the goal of moving quickly through court approval and emerging with a cleaner balance sheet. iRobot's own timeline targets completion by February 2026. [iRobot]
iRobot's CEO Gary Cohen framed the deal as a continuity play—designed to keep products supported and the business operating—while pairing iRobot's brand and product design experience with Picea's manufacturing scale.
The most consequential detail for investors is also the most blunt: iRobot says common shareholders should expect a total loss if the Chapter 11 plan is approved. After the transaction closes, iRobot plans to become a private company wholly owned by Picea, and its shares will no longer be listed on Nasdaq.
Reuters reports that under the bankruptcy plan Picea will take 100% of iRobot's equity and cancel the remaining balance of a $190 million loan from 2023, plus additional debt tied to the companies' manufacturing relationship. Reuters also reported iRobot expects other creditors and suppliers to be paid in full.
iRobot's Chapter 11 filing is the culmination of pressures that have been building for years—accelerated by a rapidly evolving robot vacuum category. Reuters cited iRobot's bankruptcy filings describing how increased competition from lower-priced rivals eroded profits and forced price cuts while iRobot continued investing in technology upgrades.
One major factor highlighted in court filings: new U.S. tariffs. Reuters reports iRobot pointed specifically to a 46% levy on imports from Vietnam, where iRobot manufactures vacuum cleaners for the U.S. market, saying the tariffs increased its costs by $23 million in 2025 and made planning harder amid uncertainty.
The result has been a much narrower path to viability for a company that, while still influential, is no longer the default choice for many consumers comparing smart mapping, mopping, docking, and app-driven scheduling features across dozens of brands.
[...] The Verge describes Picea as a major original design manufacturer (ODM) in the robot vacuum industry—building devices for multiple brands—while also selling its own products. That profile matters because it suggests iRobot's future product roadmap could lean more heavily into ODM-driven platforms and supply-chain efficiencies than the bespoke engineering approach that made early Roombas stand out. [12]
[...] TechCrunch adds an important nuance for smart-home customers worried about a "bricked" device: even if cloud-connected features ever become limited in a worst-case scenario, the physical device itself is not inherently dependent on every online service to perform basic cleaning. TechCrunch notes that what customers could lose in an extreme outcome is the "futuristic" layer—room-by-room control, app scheduling, and voice integrations—rather than the ability for the robot to run at all. [14]
[...] iRobot is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, and Reuters reports it has 274 employees, according to court documents. [15]
iRobot files for bankruptcy
The Roomba vacuum maker will be bought by Picea Robotics and plans to continue operating:
After 35 years, the maker of the Roomba robot vacuum filed for bankruptcy protection late Sunday night. Following warnings issued earlier this year that it was fast running out of options, iRobot says it is entering Chapter 11 protection and will be acquired by its contract manufacturer, China-based Picea Robotics.
The company says it will continue to operate "with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships, or ongoing product support." This should mean that, at least for now, your Roomba will continue cleaning your floors just as it did before.
The Massachusetts-based company has struggled for years amid increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers. One of the early pioneers in household robotics, iRobot was founded in 1990 and launched its first Roomba robot vacuum in 2002.
Over two decades later, while iRobot is the Kleenex of the robot vacuum space, its market share has eroded significantly to companies like Ecovacs and Roborock. An acquisition by Amazon in 2022 looked set to reverse the company's declining fortunes, but the deal fell apart under regulatory scrutiny.
Since then, iRobot has reinvented its product line and cut prices to better compete with rivals, working with Picea Robotics to develop new Roombas. But it has continued to see revenue decline. Reuters reports that US tariffs hit the company hard, especially the 46 percent in Vietnam, where it makes robot vacuums for the US.
"Today's announcement marks a pivotal milestone in securing iRobot's long-term future," said Gary Cohen, chief executive officer at iRobot. "The transaction will strengthen our financial position and will help deliver continuity for our consumers, customers, and partners."
Roomba maker iRobot bought by Chinese supplier after filing for bankruptcy
Roomba maker iRobot bought by Chinese supplier after filing for bankruptcy:
The US company behind the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner has filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to be taken over by one of its Chinese suppliers.
iRobot, which is best known for debuting the Roomba vacuum cleaner in the early 2000s, will be taken over by a subsidiary of its main supplier, Picea Robotics.
The Roomba maker, which is listed in the US, said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware as part of a restructuring agreement with Picea.
iRobot's earnings have come under pressure in recent years, hit by supply chain problems and the rise of cheaper competitors. The company warned earlier this month that it could face bankruptcy.
The iRobot chief executive, Gary Cohen, said the deal with Picea would strengthen the company's financial position.
"By combining iRobot's innovation, consumer-driven design, and research and development with Picea's history of innovation, manufacturing and technical expertise, we believe iRobot will be well-equipped to shape the next era of smart home robotics," he said.
The deal with Picea comes three years after Amazon first offered to buy iRobot at a valuation of $1.4bn (£1.1bn), as part of an effort to bolster its portfolio of consumer technology products such as its Alexa smart speakers and Ring doorbells.
However, the deal ultimately fell through over a clash with competition authorities in the EU.
iRobot received $94m in compensation for the collapse of the deal, but part of this was used to pay advisory fees and repay a portion of a loan from the private equity group Carlyle. Last month, Picea's Hong Kong subsidiary acquired the remainder of the debt.
The company's acquisition by a Chinese company could reignite concerns over surveillance. Amazon's attempt to buy iRobot raised fears among privacy campaigners that the tech company would have access to floor plans of users' homes using the vacuum cleaner's mapping features.
The bankruptcy plan will allow iRobot to remain as a going concern and continue to meet its commitments to employees, make payments in full to vendors and other creditors, the company said in a statement.
iRobot, which was founded in 1990 by three roboticists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, helped pioneer robotic products for consumers.
Many recent versions of the Roomba have included features that are controlled through the brand's app. The company said the bankruptcy filing was not expected to disrupt its app, supply chains or product support.
iRobot, which made a net loss of $145.5m last year, was valued at more than $3bn in 2021 thanks to strong demand for household cleaning products during the pandemic. It is now valued at about $137m.
Roomba vacuum cleaner firm files for bankruptcy
Roomba vacuum cleaner firm iRobot files for bankruptcy:
The US firm behind the Roomba smart vacuum cleaner, iRobot, has filed for bankruptcy protection after facing competition from Chinese rivals and being hit by tariffs.
Under the so-called pre-packaged Chapter 11 process, the main manufacturer of its devices, Shenzhen-based Picea Robotics, will take ownership of the firm.
The tough commercial landscape had forced iRobot to cut its prices and make major investments in new technology, according to documents filed on Sunday.
US import duties of 46% on goods from Vietnam, where most of iRobot's devices for the American market are made, increased its costs by $23m (£17.2m) this year, the firm said.
The loss-making company was valued at $3.56bn in 2021 after the pandemic helped to drive strong demand for its products. It is now valued at around $140m.
On Friday, iRobot's shares fell by more than 13% on the technology-heavy Nasdaq trading platform in New York.
iRobot said the bankruptcy filing was not expected to disrupt its app, supply chains or product support.
Founded in 1990 by three members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Lab, iRobot initially focused on defence and space technology before launching the Roomba in 2002.
The Roomba holds about 42% of the US market share and 65% of the Japanese market share for robotic vacuum cleaners, according to the company.
Last year, a planned $1.7bn takeover deal by online retail giant Amazon was derailed by the European Union's competition watchdog.
Trade tariffs imposed by US Donald Trump on goods entering America from overseas has added to costs to many businesses, including iRobot, which rely on imports for product manufacturing.
Trump has argued that the import taxes will boost American jobs and industry.
Picea is a manufacturer of robotic vacuum cleaners, with research and development and production facilities in China and Vietnam.
It has more than 7,000 employees worldwide and has sold more than 20 million robotic vacuum cleaners.
Roomba Maker Files for Bankruptcy, Weighed Down by Debt and Tariffs
The U.S. company that put robot vacuums into American homes has hit the skids:
The maker of Roomba, called iRobot, has filed for bankruptcy about two years after its failed merger with Amazon. The company has struggled to keep up with foreign rivals, its hefty debt and new costs of tariffs. The firm is now being taken over by its main manufacturer based in China, assuring owners that its devices will keep running as usual.
Most Roombas are manufactured in Vietnam, so the company faced new import fees under President Trump's trade regime. In its bankruptcy filing, the company says it owes U.S. Customs and Border Protection $3.4 million in unpaid tariffs. iRobot also owes nearly $100 million to the supplier taking over the firm, called Shenzhen Picea Robotics.
Founded in 1990 by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, iRobot first made devices that helped the U.S. military, searched the Great Pyramid of Giza and tracked an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Then it introduced U.S. home owners to devices that could clean their floors and pools, including the popular Roomba.
But in recent years, iRobot has struggled financially. Smart vacuums from foreign rivals, especially Chinese ones, often came at cheaper prices.
Amazon's offer to buy iRobot for $1.4 billion fell apart last year under scrutiny from European and U.S. competition regulators. iRobot was left with a $200 million loan it had taken to sustain itself during the merger review.
All year, the firm has been losing money. In the latest quarter, iRobot reported its revenue declined by 33% in the U.S. In March, it had begun warning of a possible bankruptcy, citing worries about consumer demand, competitors and tariffs.
As part of the bankruptcy plan, iRobot will go private to become part of Picea. The Chinese firm makes competing household devices under its own brand 3i and on its website lists other brands such as Shark and Anker, which makes Eufy vacuums.
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https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2025/11/google-sans-flex-font-ubuntu
Google has made its 'next generation brand typeface', Google Sans Flex, available for download — under an open source license, which is welcome news.
A modern sans serif font purpose-designed for use on screens and OSes, Google Sans Flex is a ground-up, multi-axis rebuild of the proprietary Google Sans font, by typographer David Berlow (of Font Bureau fame).
The "flex" in GS Flex is because it's a variable font that is "extremely flexible [with] variable axes for weight, width, optical size, slant, as well as an axis for rounded terminals" (as in terminals in letters, not command-line apps)."
Android and web developers will find the varied variable axes on offer a creative boon for "expressive" design work.
Changing system font is a simple way to give Ubuntu (or any other Linux) desktop a subtle new vibe without having to futz around with themes, icon packs or other eye-candy extras which substantially alter the stock experience
However, Linux desktop environments don't yet support doing anything fancy with variable fonts, beyond the basics.
Ergo, unlike on modern Android, you can't toggle Dark Mode in GNOME or KDE with this font enabled to make it automatically adjust its GRAD axis to compensate for the optical thinning that typically occurs when white text is rendered against darker backgrounds.
It's not a major drawback, and GS Flex works great as a competent, classy system UI font on Linux, especially on HiDPI displays with fractional scaling. For my tastes, Google Sans Flex has (like GNOME's default Adwaita Sans font) more presence than the Ubuntu font.
Want to try it out? Google has released the font under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), meaning you can modify, redistribute and use it in your own projects.
To get it:
- Go to Google Fonts
- Search for 'Google Sans Flex'
- Hit "Get Font" > "Download All"
- Extract the ZIP
- Find the .ttf file inside and either:
Move it to ~/.local/share/fonts; or
Install via your desktop's font manager GUIOnce installed it'll be available to use/select in other apps, settings and so on.
To change UI font on Ubuntu you can install the GNOME Tweaks tool and then open it, go to Appearance and set the UI font to Google Sans Flex. Although you may see variable options listed to pick from, GNOME will always render the 'regular' version.
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A case of astronomical fratricide is doomed to end in a fiery supernova bright enough to be spotted from Earth during the day.
A study published this August in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society investigated a binary star system about 10,000 light-years from Earth called V Sagittae. Researchers finally solved the century-long mystery behind what makes it so freaking bright. They found that the system is strangely luminous because one of the pair, a super-dense white dwarf, is absolutely scarfing down on its larger sibling at unprecedented speed.
Eventually, the two stars will collide, producing a supernova explosion of unusual brightness. The event is set to occur "in the coming years," the researchers said in a university statement.
"V Sagittae is no ordinary star system—it's the brightest of its kind and has baffled experts since it was first discovered in 1902. Our study shows that this extreme brightness is down to the white dwarf sucking the life out of its companion star, using the accreted matter to turn it into a blazing inferno," Phil Charles, a co-author of the study and a researcher at the University of Southampton, said in the statement. "It's a process so intense that it's going thermonuclear on the white dwarf's surface, shining like a beacon in the night sky."
The team observed the extraterrestrial siblings, which orbit each other once every 12.3 hours, using the powerful European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. By doing so they also found a giant ring of gas around the binary stars, consisting of the debris from carnage and resulting from the gargantuan levels of energy the white dwarf is generating.
This unexpected finding provides insight that could reshape our knowledge about the birth and death of stars, explained Pasi Hakala, a researcher at the University of Turku and co-lead author of the study. "The white dwarf cannot consume all the mass being transferred from its hot star twin, so it creates this bright cosmic ring," he continued. "The speed at which this doomed stellar system is lurching wildly, likely due to the extreme brightness, is a frantic sign of its imminent, violent end."
Pablo Rodríguez-Gil, the other co-lead author and a researcher at the Spanish Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and University of La Laguna, says that in the near future, the amassing matter on the white dwarf will probably create a nova outburst. A nova is an explosion in a binary star system, and this one would make V Sagittae visible to people on Earth without the help of any instruments.
"But when the two stars finally smash into each other and explode, this would be a supernova explosion so bright it'll be visible from Earth even in the daytime," he concluded.
Journal Reference: Pasi Hakala, Phil Charles, Pablo Rodríguez-Gil, V Sge: supersoft source or exotic hot binary? – I. An X-Shooter campaign in the high state, MNRAS, Volume 543, Issue 3, November 2025, Pages 2058–2077, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1284
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https://www.osnews.com/story/144027/mozillas-new-ceo-firefox-will-become-an-ai-browser/
In recent years, things have not been going well for Mozilla. Firefox's market share is a rounding error, and financially, the company is effectively entirely dependent on free money from Google for making it the default search engine in Firefox. Mozilla's tried to stem the bleeding with deeply unpopular efforts like focusing on online advertising and cramming more and more "AI" into Firefox, but so far, nothing has worked, and more and more of the remaining small group of Firefox users are moving to modded versions of Firefox without the "AI" nonsense and other anti-features.
The task of turning the tide is now up to Mozilla's new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, who took up the role starting today. In his first message to the public in his new role as CEO of Mozilla, he lays out his vision for the future of the company. What are his plans for Mozilla's most important product, the Firefox web browser?
Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
↫ Anthony Enzor-DeMeoSo far, the "AI" additions to Firefox have not exactly been met with thunderous applause – to put it mildly – and I don't see how increasing these efforts is going to magically turn that sentiment around. I'd hazard a guess that Firefox users, in particular, are probably quite averse to "AI" and what it stands for, further strengthening the feeling that the people leading Mozilla seem a little bit out of touch with their own users. Add to this the obvious fact that "AI" is a bubble waiting to pop, and I'm left wondering how investing in "AI" now is going to do anything but make Mozilla waste even more money.
I don't want Firefox to fail, as it is currently the only browser that isn't Chrome, Chrome in a trench coat, or Safari, but it seems Mozilla is trying to do everything to chase away what few users Firefox had left. In the short term, we can at least use modified versions of Firefox that have the "AI" nonsense and other anti-features removed, but for the long term, we're going to need something else if Mozilla keeps going down the same path it's been going in recent years. The only viable long-term alternative is Servo, but that's still a long way off from being a usable day-to-day browser.
The browser landscape ain't looking so hot, and this new Mozilla CEO is not making me feel any better.
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Resolving to spend less time on your smartphone? Understanding your travel habits can help:
If you open a banking app, play a mobile game or scroll through a news feed every day while riding the bus, your commuting routine is probably bolstering your smartphone habit, according to new research that shows phone tendencies are stronger in locations chosen automatically.
As you ponder this year's potential New Year's resolutions, understanding your habits and what reinforces them is key to helping ensure your autopilot doesn't steer you in directions that conflict with your values and goals, said Oregon State University's Morgan Quinn Ross, who led the study.
"Habits are a direct driver of behavior, those activities we do frequently and without thinking," said Ross, assistant professor of communication in the OSU College of Liberal Arts. "Because they automate our cognition, habitual processes can make day-to-day life easier to navigate – but they can also ultimately make things harder on us. For better or worse, our habits have powerful implications for how we engage with the world around us."
Ross notes that past research has shown that "mobility choices" – where we go and how we get there – are largely a factor of habit, as are the ways and frequency in which we use our smartphones. Much less studied, however, is how those habits might feed off each other.
"The interaction between mobility choice habits and smartphone habits is ideally suited for analyzing interactive habitual processes in daily life," he said. "Unlike most habits, smartphone habits can come into play pretty much wherever you are."
Ross and collaborators at the Ohio State University, the University of Iowa and the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan employed a specially designed app to collect millions of data points from 419 study participants over a two-week period.
The app tracked participants' travel routes, destinations and smartphone use, and also checked in with participants to see how automatically chosen their routes and destinations were. In addition, participants were surveyed about whether they used certain apps without thinking.
The scientists melded four indicators of spatial habits – route frequency, route automaticity, destination frequency and destination automaticity – with two measures of smartphone habits, app frequency and app automaticity, and found that smartphone habits are stronger in spaces chosen out of habit.
"That was true for social apps like Instagram, Reddit, Signal and TikTok, and also for non-social apps like Venmo or Asana," Ross said. "Social app habits, though, were less tethered to location than non-social app habits."
Regardless of type, apps used out of habit were used across spatial contexts and especially likely to be used in contexts selected based on habit. The study indicates the multiplicative potential of habitual processes in daily life, Ross said.
"Ultimately, although habits involve a lack of thinking, you can think about which habits you want to develop," he said. "We've shown that phone habits are tied to spatial habits, and that has implications for how we develop or break habits. We may try to cultivate a good habit of staying abreast of the news by reading news articles on the bus, or we may try to break a bad habit of overusing TikTok by not using it in bed."
Journal Reference: Ross, M.Q., Rhee, L., Le, H. et al. Smartphone habits are stronger in spaces chosen out of habit. Sci Rep 15, 41252 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-25174-2
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