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"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

*** Note that Proton has a commercial interest in VPNs. This may be biased reporting ***

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/proton-vpn-report-location-tracking-privacy/

With a fast VPN, your speed loss will be virtually unnoticeable.

Using a virtual private network is a surefire way to keep your information private when browsing the internet. But a new report from Proton, released on Wednesday, exposes some major holes in that concept.

A VPN is a tool that encrypts your internet behavior and hides your IP address and physical location, with the goal of keeping your identity and identifying information secure. But 64 of the VPN apps downloaded in the US, Proton found, are owned by Chinese companies and contain trackers that collect all sorts of user information, including device IDs, network information, device models and mobile carrier data.

And 25% of the apps in question were found to actively track your location.

In June alone, these apps were downloaded over 13 million times.

Narrowing down the numbers further, Proton found that 31 of those Chinese-owned VPNs use shell companies registered in jurisdictions such as Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK to further hide their identities.

An authoritarian government like China’s could use this information to track a person’s location. So if a public official, someone in law enforcement, a journalist or even someone attending a protest was using one of these VPNs for safety, this flaw would expose them to potential threats.

It should be clear that China isn’t the only country where companies harvest the data these apps collect, but it’s near the top of the list. Israel, Russia and the Five Eyes countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US — all have companies collecting tracking data from millions of people.

Transparency is a big issue here, with a load of bad VPN apps being readily available for download through Apple and Google. Proton’s report points out that both companies require developers to submit their own paperwork to verify their apps, with little verification (and no independent audits) being done on Apple’s or Google’s part. Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

This lack of guardrails in the verification process makes it hard to decipher which virtual private network apps protect your privacy and do what their policies promise and which are virtually doing the opposite.

“Proton's report is yet another example of why it's so important to know who's behind your VPN and what data they're collecting,” CNET Senior Writer Attila Tomaschek said. “It's also another reminder that just because a VPN app is popular in Apple's or Google's app marketplaces, it doesn't necessarily mean that the VPN app is safe to use.”

If you’re looking for a VPN, Tomaschek points to VPNs like Proton and ExpressVPN, which regularly rank near the top of CNET’s VPN recommendations. Each virtual private network is put through a rigorous testing process that includes a thorough examination of the app’s privacy policy, transparency reports, audits, corporate structure and legal jurisdiction.

When all else fails, avoid any VPN that is murky about any of those key principles. “Instead, opt for a trustworthy VPN that is crystal clear about where it’s based, who’s behind it and how it protects user privacy,” Tomaschek said.

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Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/08/metas-scrapped-plans-to-go-ai-native-included-slashing-teams-by-60-percent/

Earlier this year, Meta created a "plan" to reduce some of its teams by as much as 60 percent to make the company "AI native," Reuters reported today, citing two people familiar with Meta's internal affairs.

Reuters' report highlights the challenges organizations face when analyzing the best uses for AI and determining when the technology is a better fit for certain tasks than employees.

Meta confirmed to Reuters that the plan, reportedly codenamed Project OT (short for organization transformation), explored scenarios in which Meta reduced some team headcounts by 60 percent and that the plan called for two rounds of layoffs. Meta wouldn't confirm which teams Project OT affected.

Meta told the publication:

As part of our company restructuring earlier this year, we asked some teams to conduct a scenario planning exercise looking at the potential impact of redeployments, open role closures and cuts. This ultimately resulted in moving thousands of employees to do priority work on several newly-established teams, as has been publicly reported. Ultimately, we didn't move forward with every scenario from the exercise – and it was never assumed we would.

As part of our company restructuring earlier this year, we asked some teams to conduct a scenario planning exercise looking at the potential impact of redeployments, open role closures and cuts. This ultimately resulted in moving thousands of employees to do priority work on several newly-established teams, as has been publicly reported. Ultimately, we didn't move forward with every scenario from the exercise – and it was never assumed we would.

Reuters reported that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg "set Project OT in motion and directed executives to proceed with the changes to management structures" earlier this year. It said that the first round of layoffs from Project OT occurred in May and that Meta canceled the second.

Reuters said it reviewed "scores of internal documents, posts, and recordings" and spoke with "more than 20 people with knowledge of Meta's inner workings" about the since-scrapped plans.

Per the publication, Meta executives created Project OT in January. Project OT reportedly explored using AI to perform "much of the daily work performed by thousands of human employees." Small teams of people would oversee the AI, the report said, citing "one internal planning document reviewed by Reuters and three people familiar with the project."

In these scenarios, Meta would give some employees new roles and lay off others. One HR executive reportedly said that Meta would have reduced its headcount by about 25 percent or more under these scenarios. Meta told Reuters that it canceled Project OT before determining how many layoffs the plan called for.

Meta was going to use some of the money that it saved from layoffs to pay for high-performing employees, especially those with AI engineering skills, Reuters reported, citing "two people familiar with the matter."

One of the Project OT documents that Reuters reviewed described "AI native" as a company where "AI-ready tools and agents interact, workflows are automated, [and] new builds are AI-first." Being "AI native" also means, per the document, selling AI agents to third parties, which Meta started doing in June.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/sony-is-reminding-us-again-that-we-dont-own-our-playstation-games/

The future of gaming is going to be all digital, whether anyone likes it or not. 

Some things are too bizarre to make up, and Sony's inability to read the room is one of them.

Over the last week or so, the media giant has sent emails to PlayStation users with its entire Terms of Service, which includes a reminder that their digital games are "licensed” and not “sold.” The communication comes as gamers continue to protest Sony's removal of physical media from the PlayStation 6.

As an isolated incident, Sony's email isn't really anything untoward. It lets the user know that they have recently accepted the most recent Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, End User License Agreement and Privacy Policy. The company even included full copies of each in the email. 

But the timing of Sony’s email appears intentional, not just unfortunate. PlayStation users are furious over the company’s decision to remove the physical disc drive from the PlayStation 6, as well as its announcement that it will stop producing game discs altogether as of January 2028. Sony announced the end of physical discs just a few days after removing several digitally purchased movies from users’ accounts.

The email was spotted by The Verge's Tom Warren, who posted about it on X over the weekend: “Sony emailing everyone about PlayStation terms of use during a backlash over the end of discs and a lack of digital ownership is certainly a choice.”

The backlash has grown large enough to inspire a PlayStation boycott — starting Sunday — with players pledging not to buy, log in to or play games for a week to protest Sony’s abandonment of physical media for the console.

So, right in the middle of a protest centered on concerns about game ownership, Sony is reminding us we’re merely buying a license to use a game under the company’s terms.

A move like this from another multibillion-dollar company underscores the new normal in gaming and tech, where companies appear to be shifting further away from the idea of ownership. Instead, they ask consumers to retain access to products that may be revoked or restricted at the company’s discretion. These changes didn't come in one dramatic wave, but in a steady stream of small consumer-facing microaggressions that have built up over time. 

Take the recent HP printer controversy, for example. HP programmed its printers to lock users out if third-party ink is detected. That means you can buy an HP printer and own it — but if you don’t fill it with the official (more expensive) ink cartridges, the printer can sass back like an angsty, spoiled teenager and refuse to work. 

There are subtler attempts to chip away at our agency (and purchasing power) as consumers. Apple raised MacBook prices this year, then started a program where the company will literally rent you one, presumably because you can’t afford it otherwise. You wouldn’t own the MacBook, so Apple could lock you out of your device if you missed a lease payment. 

When it comes to music and movies, streaming has been the norm for years — we’re dutifully reminded every so often that we’re renting the ability to listen or watch something rather than owning it. I’ll never forget a couple of years ago when the entire library from the rock band Coheed and Cambria's was removed from YouTube Music due to a licensing dispute while I was in the middle of listening. 

Sony and other gaming companies are starting to adopt the same lending-access business model in software and digital entertainment: In this brave new world, mega corporations can own everything and make us “purchase” rentals entirely on their terms. That means they can change, restrict, discontinue or shut down access, but we can never keep, lend, sell or pass down a product.

The shift is leaving older generations (millennials like myself included) increasingly nostalgic for a time when buying something meant taking home something tangible — something that belonged to us.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://www.theregister.com/legal/2026/08/26/flock-shock-rocks-cop-cam-vendor-as-protests-mount/5292691

A mischief-maker in a Darth Vader suit recently endorsed Flock at a city council meeting, and it has not helped the company's fortunes. Around the US, citizens have been protesting and sometimes vandalizing the company's network of surveillance cameras. And the advocacy has caused some governments to change course.

Government officials, commonly hesitant to second-guess law enforcement practices, have become concerned enough to question these mass surveillance practices. US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Wednesday wrote to Flock CEO Garrett Langley to announce an investigation of "Flock Safety's collection, retention, and dissemination of data gathered by its artificial intelligence cameras."

Despite "Darth Vader's" comments last week at a San Diego City Council meeting about the need to "continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum," a growing number of local governments in the US have been cancelling or choosing not to renew their contracts with Flock and other makers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs).

The Institute for Justice (IJ), a Virginia-based legal advocacy non-profit, on Wednesday published a new database that tracks the termination of local government ALPR contracts. As of Wednesday, the database documents 93 local governments that canceled ALPR contracts.

The IJ, which is challenging ALPR use on Fourth Amendment grounds in Norfolk, Virginia and San Jose, California, previously published a database that documents police abuse of ALPRs, a topic addressed in Hawley's letter. Incidents include romantic stalking, wrongful traffic stops and detentions, and other forms of misconduct.

"I think what's happened is that the American public has woken up to the mass surveillance that quietly arose around them," said Robert Frommer, senior attorney at IJ, in an interview with The Register. "And they don't like it.

"It does seem to me that the rate of cancellations, the rate of public protest has increased over the past few months. I think that's both due to more news attention being paid to the real life abuses of this technology, as well as the Supreme Court's recent decision in the geofence case," Frommer said. In that case, SCOTUS ruled that cops need a warrant to grab location data.

Frommer said that he believes the IJ's efforts to document ALPRs and associated abuses have helped focus the public's concern and have illustrated the problems with warrantless mass surveillance.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

https://www.theregister.com/science/2026/08/26/indias-crewed-space-program-will-fly-this-year-after-missing-2022-and-2025-targets/5292478

India plans the first launch of its crewed space program this year and has expanded its orbital ambitions to include operating a space station by 2035.

India's crewed space program is called Gaganyaan and has already missed deadlines to fly in 2022 and 2025. The nation's space research organization (ISRO) agency and government did not say anything about the future Gaganyaan schedule after last year's deadline passed without a launch.

That silence ended earlier this week, when ISRO Chairman Dr V. Narayanan used the occasion of India's third annual National Space Day to reveal that testing of the rocket and crew module to be used by Gaganyaan missions is almost complete, and the first of three test missions will launch this year.

The test flights will use India's LVM3 launcher, which ISRO has flown nine times without failure. The version ISRO will use for Gaganyaan missions is rated for human use thanks to the inclusion of a crew escape system equipped with solid-fuel motors designed to speed Vyomanauts – the Sanskrit-derived word India has unofficially adopted for its astronauts –to safety.

The Gaganyaan crew module is built to carry three Vyomanauts and spend three days in a 400km orbit before splashing down into Indian waters.

ISRO has previously said it will launch a robot on at least one Gaganyaan test mission. It's unclear if that's still the plan. The aerospace agency has also not said when it plans to launch its second and third test flights, or a first crewed mission.

If India can put Vyomanauts in orbit it will become just the fourth country to do so on its own vehicle – after Russia, the USA, and China.

Dr Narayanan and other officials and government figures  used this year's Space Day to tease other future initiatives, one of which is putting an Indian space station into orbit around 2035. More involvement from private space companies was also on the agenda, perhaps as manufacturers of the launchers ISRO uses. If India chooses that path, it will mimic the USA's current approach, which sees NASA make just one vehicle – the ultra-expensive Space Launch System – and contract its other launches to commercial launch companies. Japan's space agency uses a slightly different approach, defining specs for its vehicles and contracting industrial giants like Mitsubishi to make them, but then runs its own missions under its own name.

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"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

https://www.engadget.com/2246131/judge-rules-that-pentagon-anthropic-ban-illegal-and-baseless/

A US federal court has ruled that the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk was illegal, CNBC reported. US District judge Rita Lin found that the US Department of Defense's restrictions placed on the AI company and its Claude model were "illegal and baseless." As part of the ruling, the judge barred certain federal agencies from enforcing President Trump's order to stop using Anthropic's tools.

"The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Judge Lin said in a 59-page decision. "Neither the Constitution nor the federal statute invoked by Defendants allows them to impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views."

"We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful," an Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC. "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology."

The dispute arose in late February, after the Department of Defense and its Secretary Pete Hegseth pressured Anthropic to remove certain safeguards from its AI systems. Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, however, made it clear the company would refuse to allow its model to be used for mass surveillance or the development of autonomous weapons.

Late in February, Trump ordered all US government agencies to stop using Claude and other Anthropic services, escalating the feud. On social media, the president said there would be a six-month phase out period for federal agencies to migrate off of Anthropic's products. Subsequent talks collapsed and Anthropic became the first US company to be designated as a supply chain risk.

After saying it would challenge the decision, Anthropic sued the White House in two federal courts (for two separate designations) to reverse the ban. Today's ruling by Judge Lin gave the company a victory on one of those counts, but Anthropic is still considered a supply chain risk pending the second decision. Even if it wins both cases, though, the Pentagon would not be required to restart its work with the company.

The supply chain designation hasn't slowed Anthropic's march toward a likely near-record IPO later this year. Earlier this month, the company's revenue surged to a record $11.5 billion, 14 times more than it earned in the same quarter last year. Engadget has reached out to Anthropic for additional comment.

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fliptop writes:

The Global Government Affairs team over at X dropped a bombshell Thursday night, revealing that the X Safety team had uncovered proof positive of a foreign influence campaign targeting the build out of AI and data centers in the United States:

It turns out that, after launching an investigation, the team uncovered a massive bot farm consisting of roughly 200,000 "suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts," including hundreds that appear to have been trying to manipulate debate in the U.S. over artificial intelligence, data centers, and the associated energy costs.

This development comes after President Trump warned last month that "other nations are trying to get us to slow down" and are spending money on "propaganda" to convince Americans that data centers aren't a positive thing.

According to X, about 200 accounts within the bot farm network were posting claims that data centers drive up household electricity prices and put excessive strain on the power grid. Some of the accounts, ironically, posted AI-generated cartoons depicting data center operators getting rich while ordinary American citizens were stuck paying the bill.

[...] The insidious thing about this kind of foreign influence operation is that it preys on the concerns that many Americans already have about the data centers popping up in their communities – debates about things like electric bills and the robustness of the power grid are already happening here. All a foreign adversary like China has to do is amplify those fears and sow distrust to make it harder for the U.S. to keep building out its AI infrastructure.

Related:

• Protesters Haul A Guillotine To City Council Meeting About A Potential AI Data Center
• Texas Halts Data Center Connections to Power Grid Amid Overwhelming Demand
• The Fight Against AI Data Centers is Important – but It's Just a Starting Point
• 'Cost Me the Election': Data Centers Trigger Voter Backlash

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Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/site-provides-instructions-to-get-up-to-usd175-back-for-your-pre-installed-windows-11-license-new-portal-provides-legal-forms-but-warns-buyers-not-to-wipe-storage-first

Refund4Freedom doesn't just help PC buyers in the quest to get Windows refunds; they have three key demands. Prevention is better than cure, right? The first demand is that “Device manufacturers and vendors should not impose an operating system or software on consumers, and should not force them to pay for software that they don't want.” This is central to the site’s message and purpose. However, it also wants to promote the idea that consumers should have the right to buy hardware without pre-installed software and see the price of the product with and without Windows, etc. Refund4Freedom also urges manufacturers and vendors to clearly outline the steps for requesting and obtaining a refund for pre-installed OSes and software. Of course, the process for consumers should be as friction-free as possible.

Whichever brand of PC you buy, and the above list is far from exhaustive, you should follow a deliberate rejection procedure. If you intend to shun Windows, Refund4Freedom tells users to start up the PC and take pictures showing the contract clauses addressing reimbursement. Do not format or erase the computer at this stage. The next step is to contact the manufacturer's customer service. Do this in a recordable way, and so email/messaging is encouraged for records.

Finally, and whatever the outcome, Refund4Freedom asks its readers to report their experience, good or bad, to the aforementioned AGCM. To inspire you, the site includes several user reports of success, and I note one user getting back as much as €150 from Acer (~$175). That was a combination of Windows license reimbursement and a larger legal fee refund. A more typical reimbursement level is roughly $60.

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fliptop writes:

PayPal shares plunged as much as 16% in premarket trading Friday, the most in months if the losses hold through the cash session, after a consortium led by private-equity firm Advent International and payments giant Stripe abandoned its takeover bid for the struggling payment processor (paywalled, use Reader mode in Firefox):

A consortium of buyout firm Advent and payment processor Stripe has decided to abandon its pursuit of fintech pioneer PayPal Holdings Inc., a potential deal that would have ranked as one of the biggest-ever leveraged buyouts, according to people familiar with the matter.

From ZeroHedge:

PayPal reportedly rejected the $50 billion offer, betting that Advent and Stripe would return to the negotiating table with a higher price. Instead, the consortium walked away.

[...] Takeover interest in PayPal first came to light in a February Bloomberg article, which reported that Stripe was considering acquiring all or part of PayPal. Reuters then reported on July 15 that an offer had been made, helping to catapult the stock up roughly 30% (as of Thursday's close).

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://www.engadget.com/2242192/uber-hit-with-1-billion-fine-for-automatically-deactivating-drivers-in-europe/

Uber has allegedly violated the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) again, but this time to the tune of a 824.9 million euro, or $966 million, fine. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), or the Dutch Data Protection Authority, hit Uber with the massive fine, accusing the company of automatically deactivating driver accounts between 2018 and 2022 without human intervention.

According to the Dutch regulatory agency, Uber has deprived its drivers of income through fully automated decisions, violating the GDPR in the process. The investigation was launched after 171 French drivers reported these decisions to a local human rights organization, which eventually led to the AP taking over the case since Uber's European headquarters are located in The Netherlands.

"From one moment to the next, they no longer had any income through Uber," Monique Verdier, deputy chair of the AP, said of the drivers who initiated the complaint. "A computer should not make decisions on its own that have major consequences for you."

The AP has previously fined Uber three times, including once in 2018 for 600,000 euros, or $701,000, and again in 2023 for 10 million euros, or $11.6 million. Uber's previous record-high fine came in 2024 when the AP issued a 290 million euro, or around $339 million, penalty for improperly transferring personal data of European drivers to the US. This time around, the AP said that the 824.9 million euro fine was calculated as the maximum penalty that's derived from four percent of a company's worldwide annual turnover. According to the AP, Uber has already filed an appeal against the fine. We reached out to Uber for their comment on the fine and will update the story when we hear back.

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Brave 1.94 adds Email Aliases, giving users five free forwarding addresses to hide their real email from websites:

Brave, a privacy and security-focused browser, has announced a new feature that will allow users to generate unique email addresses to sign up for online services, and receive emails from those services without revealing their real email address.

The feature, called Email Aliases, has been added to the latest desktop version of the browser, 1.94, and will be coming to mobile soon.

According to Brave, instead of handing over their real email address, users generate a unique alias for each service. For the time being, Brave is "offering everyone the option of five free email aliases," tied to their Brave Account.

[...] The service works by forwarding emails sent to an alias on to the user's real address, without letting the sender see that real address. In the process, Brave acts as a mail server that stores the account email, the aliases, and some information about message delivery.

The company promises that it "doesn't read the contents of emails sent to an alias. We only process emails to perform standard spam and virus filtering."

Since I run my own mail server, I use a special domain and create a unique email address for each vendor I purchase from. It makes it much easier to 1) stop delivery of unwanted marketing email from the vendor, and 2) figure out which vendors are selling my info to 3rd party data brokers. In the latter case I usually stop buying from any vendor who sells my info. What do you do to thwart marketing email and spam?

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/death-threats-hit-data-center-opponents-as-towns-cancel-votes-and-close-public-comment

More Than 500 Towns Restrict Builds As Councils Shutter Public Comment

Marshall Mayor Scott Wolfersberger told local news station WWMT that the city's police department contacted him on August 12 about the threat and that the investigation is ongoing. Councilor James Hackworth wrote in a social media post that members had received "a legitimate death threat" and that disagreement, protest, and voting the council out are all part of democracy. It's unclear whether the sender supports or opposes data centers, and no suspect has been identified to date.

Woodbury County is separately challenging the annexation in court. The council met a week late on August 20 and voted 3-2 against the moratorium, with Nelson calling officers into the room as members of the public and councilman Gene Monk objected. "We ask for a cool-down period for a year to research, then we can make an educated decision. We can let the people vote for it after that — do something different," Monk said. "It's too big of a decision for us five people [council members]."

Over in Box Elder County, Utah, Commissioner Lee Perry has said that he and fellow Commissioners Boyd Bingham and Tyler Vincent had received threats after voting through two resolutions for the Stratos project area, with an audience of roughly 500 chanting "shame" at the meeting.

Previous incidents show these are more than idle threats. In April, Indianapolis councilman Ron Gibson had 13 rounds fired into his home after backing a rezoning, and Saline Township, Michigan, treasurer Jennifer Zink resigned in May citing threats over the 1.4GW Oracle and OpenAI campus that triggered moratoriums in at least 19 Michigan municipalities. Emporia, Kansas, moved its August 5 and August 19 commission meetings online and dropped public comment after its leaders were threatened.

Recent data published in the Soufan Center's July IntelBrief, which is based on a year of scraping X and Reddit, found hundreds of posts with threat language between July 2025 and July 2026, and a volume surge beginning in April that hasn't receded. Most violent threats in its dataset are targeted towards infrastructure rather than people, with posts naming council members and planning commissions a small minority. Many use memes, emojis, and misspellings to dodge moderation.

The center also found that each new incident now draws far more secondary amplification than it did earlier in the year. Emporia's mayor said the threats to his commission didn't appear to come from locals, and Salix, Emporia, and Marshall have all now canceled, moved, or restricted public meetings because of them, at a point when more than 500 local restrictions on data centers are in place nationwide.

Original Submission

coolgopher writes:

Following Codeberg already doing so, independent software development platform SourceHut moves to prohibit LLM content on their platform. Their announcement is quite informative and with plenty of references to back up their reasoning. I particularly like this part:

As software engineers we have front-row seats for the deployment of one of the world's fastest growing energy consumers: AI. Our conscience calls us to resist the deployment of technologies which will exacerbate death and suffering for millions. AI might deliver benefits to society, but the cost is so high that we need to make careful decisions about how it's deployed and if the benefits to society outweigh those costs. On the whole, vibe coding does not deliver benefits which, in the view of SourceHut and our community, outweigh the costs. Cheap, green electricity, preservation of freshwater resources, husbanding our planet and its wildlife: these are all much more important than AI-assisted coding.

The broader social and economic consequences add to the alarm. These tools are disrupting labor and increasing the already unprecedented gap between the haves and the have-nots. These companies pay minimum wage in inhumane conditions in impoverished countries for the labor they exploit to train models that can be applied to taking the bottom out of the labor market in wealthy countries. Moreover, the accumulated wealth of the AI owners, and the depleted resources of the AI proletariat, is further exploited to consolidate power, enable the rise of fascism, and destroy the social order alongside the environmental order. AI is being used to deport immigrants without due process, surveil and police poor and racialized communities, manipulate elections and political discourse, facilitate crimes against humanity at scale, and amplify injustices in our institutions.

Finally, AI simply seems to be bad for the people who use it. Many open source maintainers complain of being exhausted by a deluge of low-quality AI generated contributions. AI has been linked to "deskilling", making its users worse at problem solving and other cognitive tasks. And the number of people who have been talked into psychosis or suicide by their chatbots continues to rise.

These concerns are myriad, credible, and demand action. Our small contribution to the problem is to clearly state our position on the matter and adjust our policies to provide a safe platform for people who are concious of these issues to work and find community.

I feel like we're heading in the direction of a schism, with open source communities on the one side, and corporations and business aligned individuals and projects on the other.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

Nvidia Reportedly Warns Biggest Customers Of 15% Price Hikes On AI Servers

Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell systems shipped from early 2027 affected:

[...] This is another example of the so-called "RAMageddon" that's gripping the DRAM market, with contract prices having risen at record rates this year. Analysts projected that conventional DRAM contract prices would climb 58% to 63% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2026, following a Q1 surge of 90% to 95%, as suppliers reallocated capacity toward HBM and server products. SK hynix said in October last year that it had already sold out its entire 2026 memory production capacity, and Samsung and SK hynix raised 2026 HBM3E supply prices by close to 20% before the year began.

Nvidia has already passed rising costs through to consumers, raising prices on GeForce graphics cards earlier this month. The Bloomberg report indicates the same unrelenting pressure has now reached the top of the Nvidia stack, where hyperscalers as well as PC builders will be absorbing the increase. A 15% rise on rack-scale systems that sell for several million dollars each adds hundreds of thousands of dollars per rack across deployments that run to thousands of racks.

Nvidia runs a gross margin of roughly 75% non-GAAP, among the highest in the semiconductor industry, and the reported hikes indicate the company intends to pass memory cost inflation on to customers rather than absorb it, which it can more than afford to do. Meanwhile, supply of its accelerators from TSMC still can't meet demand, which limits buyers' immediate leverage.

Whether the increases push hyperscalers further toward AMD's accelerators or their own custom silicon will depend on how quickly those alternatives can absorb displaced demand, and all of them draw HBM from the same three constrained suppliers.

Nvidia's GB300-Powered DGX Station Desktop Tower Listed For Nearly $100,000 Online

You can actually buy up to ten of them at once:

Nvidia officially launched the latest DGX Station desktop at Computex 2026 earlier this year, but the announcement was not accompanied by an explicit price tag. The expectation of an MSRP withers away when it comes to enterprise-grade hardware anyway, but still, early chatter had pointed toward a $100,000 ballpark figure. That number has just been confirmed, as a DGX Station from Exxact was found listed for $94,930 on its website, featuring the all-powerful GB300 Superchip, ready to customize and buy.

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/08/26/self-hosted-email-is-in-steep-decline-microsoft-and-google-are-taking-over/5292471

The number of large users hosting their own email servers has halved in the last decade, according to Artem Berezin, a researcher who works at business e-mail company Live Direct Marketing.

On the Internet Society blog, Berezin explained that DNS records reveal a lot about email.

"The MX record says where the mailbox lives. The SPF record says who may send on the domain's behalf. The DMARC record says what should happen when a message fails authentication," he wrote.

Berezin says he analyzes those records using daily forward-DNS snapshots captured by the OpenINTEL project run by the University of Twente, SURFnet and SIDN Labs. He also consults the Tranco project's assessment of the most popular domains to determine the million most popular domains, then "classifies each domain's MX hostname and SPF includes against open dictionaries of mailbox providers, sending platforms and SaaS applications." The data he uses goes back to 2016, but he admits the dictionaries he accesses don't offer a complete view of the world's email servers.

His lead finding is that in 2016, 44.6 percent of the top million domains ran their own mail server. In 2026, that's down to 22.4 percent. The number of self-hosted mail servers is falling fast – down by half a percent in 30 days.

Self-hosting an email server remains the most common way to process mail, however Google Workspace is hot on its heels with 21.8 percent of detectable MX records, ahead of Microsoft 365's 16.8 percent.

Berezin thinks the fact that two tech giants handle 38.6 percent of email is concerning.