In 30 minutes the Free Software Foundation holds a live auction of memorabilia to celebrate their upcoming 40th anniversary. “By moving out of the FSF office, we got to sort through all the fun and historically important memorabilia and selected the best ones,” they announced earlier — and 25 items will up for bids. (To participate in the live auction, you must register in advance.)

“This is your chance to get your very own personal souvenir of the FSF,” explains an 11-page auction booklet, “from original GNU art to a famous katana and the Internet Hall of Fame medal of the FSF’s founder.”

That’s right… a katana.

Once upon a time, this 41-inch blade turned heads at the FSF’s tech team office. Donated by FSF friends and fans of the XKCD webcomic #225, it became a lighthearted “weapon” in the war for user freedom. As RMS himself is anti-violence, he made a silly joke by examining the katana closely instead of brandishing it, symbolizing that software freedom can be defended with wit. In a legendary photo, this was perceived as if he sniffed the blade. Between the etched dragon on the scabbard and the wavy hamon on the blade, it’s as flashy as it is symbolic — especially if you like taking on proprietary software with style (and a dash of humor).

The auction is intended “to entrust some of the historically important free software memorabilia that were in the FSF’s office and archive to the free software community instead of locking them away in a storage unit where no one can enjoy them.

“Hopefully, this way some of these unique items will be displayed in galleries or on the walls of free software enthusiasts. All auction proceeds will go towards the FSF’s mission to promote computer user freedom.”

And speaking of user freedom, here’s how they described the Internet Hall of Fame medal:

When Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the FSF, was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, it was the ultimate nod to free software’s immense impact on the Internet… The medal is shiny, and the frame is fancy, but the real radiance is the recognition that the Internet might look much more locked down and dull without those original free software seeds. Hang it on your wall, and you’ll be reminded that hacking for user freedom can change the world.

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Reuters reported this week that several U.S. national security agencies “have halted work on a coordinated effort to counter Russian sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks…”

The plan was led by the president’s National Security Council (NSC) and involved at least seven national security agencies working with European allies to disrupt plots targeting Europe and the United States, seven former officials who participated in the working groups told Reuters… [S]ince Trump took office on January 20 much of the work has come to a standstill, according to eleven current and former officials, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss classified matters… Regular meetings between the National Security Council and European national security officials have gone unscheduled, and the NSC has also stopped formally coordinating efforts across U.S. agencies…

The FBI last month ended an effort to counter interference in U.S. elections by foreign adversaries including Russia and put on leave staff working on the issue at the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Justice also disbanded a team that seized the assets of Russian oligarchs… Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Reuters the agency had placed on administrative leave personnel working on misinformation and disinformation on its election security team, without elaborating further.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Seven years ago, three classmates at the Technical University of Munich believed their student engineering project might hold some promise in the private sector.

At the time, one of the co-founders, Daniel Metzler, led a team of 40 students working on rocket engines and launching sounding rockets. Josef Fleischmann was on the team that won the first SpaceX Hyperloop competition. Together with another classmate, Markus Brandl, they crafted rocket parts in a campus workshop before taking the leap and establishing Isar Aerospace, named for the river running through the Bavarian capital.

Now, Isar’s big moment has arrived. The company’s orbital-class first rocket, named Spectrum, is set to lift off from a shoreline launch pad in Norway as soon as Monday.

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Apple is working on adding cameras to future Apple Watch models in order to make them function more like AI wearables, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in the Power On newsletter. Gurman reports that the company “is considering adding cameras to both its standard Series watches and Ultra models,” with plans for a 2027 launch. The move would allow the Apple Watch to support AI features like Visual Intelligence, which can provide on-the-spot information about whatever the user points the camera at.

Gurman previously reported that Apple is developing AirPods with a built-in camera for the same purpose, and he notes this week that these are expected to launch around the same time as the camera-equipped Apple Watches. Camera placement would likely vary among the different watch models. According to Gurman, the Series watches could get a camera in the display, while the camera in the Ultra would be on the side of the device.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apple-watches-with-built-in-cameras-to-support-ai-features-are-reportedly-in-the-works-154531629.html?src=rss

“For developers and organisations that require a custom software image, a flexible and transparent build system is essential,” according to an announcement Friday at Raspberry Pi.com.

“[T]o support these customers, we have created rpi-image-gen, a powerful new tool designed to put you in complete control of your Raspberry Pi images.”

If you’re building an embedded system or an industrial controller, you’ll need complete control over the software resident on the device, and home users may wish to build their own OS and have it pre-configured exactly the way they want… rpi-image-gen is an alternative to pi-gen, which is the tool we use to create and deploy the Raspberry Pi OS distribution. rpi-image-gen… offers a very granular level of control over file system construction and software image creation… [B]eing able to help reduce software build time, provide guaranteed ownership of support, and reuse standard methodologies to ensure authenticity of software were all of paramount importance, and among the reasons why we created a new home-grown build tool for Raspberry Pi devices…

There is a small number of examples in the tree which demonstrate different use cases of rpi-image-gen [including the lightweight image slim and webkiosk for booting into browser kiosk mode]. All create bootable disk images and serve to illustrate how one might use rpi-image-gen to create a bespoke image for a particular purpose. The number of examples will grow over time and we welcome suggestions for new ones… Visit the rpi-image-gen GitHub repository to get started. There, you’ll find documentation and examples to guide you through creating custom Raspberry Pi images.

Some technical details from the announcement.

“Similar to pi-gen, rpi-image-gen leverages the power, reliability, and trust of installing a Debian Linux system for the device. However, unlike pi-gen, rpi-image-gen introduces some new concepts [profiles, image layouts, and config] which serve to dictate the build footprint and installation.”

The tool also lets you exclude from your package “things that would otherwise be installed as part of the profile.”
The tool’s GitHub repository notes that it also allows you output your software bill of materials (SBOM) “to list the exact set of packages that were used to create the image.” And it can even generate a list of CVEs identified from the SBOM to “give consumers of your image confidence that your image does not contain any known vulnerabilities.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If you’re looking to upgrade your kitchen with a versatile countertop oven, the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer is currently on sale for $280 thanks to the Amazon Spring Sale — down from its usual $350. That’s a $70 discount on one of the most well-regarded air fryer toaster ovens out there, and it’s close to the lowest price we’ve ever seen.

Breville’s Smart Oven Air Fryer combines convection baking and air frying into a single, compact appliance. It features Element iQ system technology, which intelligently adjusts heat distribution to ensure precise and even cooking. Whether you’re roasting a chicken, crisping up fries or baking cookies, this oven is designed to handle it all. The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer has 11 cooking functions, including toast, bake, roast, broil, air fry, and pizza, making it a versatile tool for any kitchen. While throwing down close to $300 might seem steep, you have to consider how flexible this oven is, plus how good of a deal you can get right now.

Air fryers have become convenient alternatives to ovens thanks to the speed at which you can cook with them. The Breville Smart Air Fryer is no different; its super convection technology speeds up cooking times while delivering that golden, crispy finish we all love. The LCD display and easy-to-use dials make navigating the settings simple, while the spacious interior can fit a 13-inch pizza or six slices of toast at once — handy when you have a big family or crowd to feed.

If you want even more features and are prepared to part with a little more cash, the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is also on sale for $300, down from its usual $400. In our roundup of the best air fryers, we consider it the best air fryer toaster oven thanks to its extra cooking presets, a larger capacity and dehydration capabilities, making it an even better choice for those who frequently cook in bulk.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-breville-smart-oven-air-fryer-is-down-to-280-in-the-amazon-spring-sale-145714126.html?src=rss

Science magazine reports:
A strange-looking telescope that scanned the skies from a perch in northern Chile for 15 years has released its final data set: detailed maps of the infant universe showing the roiling clouds of hydrogen and helium gas that would one day coalesce into the stars and galaxies we see today.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope is not the first to survey the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the light released 380,000 years after the Big Bang when the early universe’s soup of particles formed atoms and space became transparent. But the data — posted as preprints online today — give researchers a new level of detail on the density of the gas clouds and how they were moving.
At the top of the page for Science’s article is an image where different colors “show areas where the polarization of the CMB light — its direction of vibration — differ, revealing how gases first move tangentially around areas of higher density (orange) and later fall straight in (blue) under the influence of gravity.”

Long-time Slashdot reader sciencehabit writes:
Using the data, researchers tested how well the standard cosmological theory, known as lambda cold dark matter, described the universe at that time 13.8 billion years ago; it’s a remarkably good fit, they conclude.
The article notes that “back in the Chilean desert,” the Atacama Cosmology Telescope’s successor, the Simons Observatory, has already taken its first image, and “will begin its even more detailed examination of the CMB in the coming months.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wired’s web site “is going to stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act,” their global editorial director announced this week:

They’re called public records for a reason, after all. And access to public documents is more important than ever at this moment, with government websites and records disappearing… [S]ome may argue that, from a business standpoint, not charging for stories primarily relying on public records automatically means fewer subscriptions and therefore less revenue. We disagree.

Sure, the FOIA process is time- and labor-intensive. Reporters face stonewalling, baseless denials, lengthy appeals processes, and countless other obstacles and delays. Investigative reports based on public records are among the most expensive stories to produce and share with the public… But while some readers might not subscribe to outlets that give away some of their best journalism for free, it’s just as possible that readers will recognize this sacrifice and reward these outlets with more traffic and subscriptions in the long run…

We hope others will follow Wired’s lead (and shoutout to outlets like 404 Media that also make their FOIA-based reporting available for free). We also hope those who stand to benefit from these outlets’ leadership (that’s you, reader) will do their part and subscribe if you can afford it. They’re not asking for an arm and a leg… The Fourth Estate needs to step up and invest in serving the public during these unprecedented times. And the public needs to return the favor and support quality journalism, so that hopefully one day we can do away with those annoying paywalls altogether.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to a memo circulating among State Department staff and reviewed by WIRED, the Trump administration plans to rename the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as US International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA), and to bring it directly under the secretary of state. The document, on which Politico first reported, states that as part of its reorganization, the agency will “leverage blockchain technology” as part of its procurement process.

“All distributions would also be secured and traced via blockchain technology to radically increase security, transparency, and traceability,” the memo reads. “This approach would encourage innovation and efficiency among implementing partners and allow for more flexible and responsive programming focused on tangible impact rather than simply completing activities and inputs.”

The memo does not make clear what specifically this means—if it would encompass doing cash transfers in some kind of cryptocurrency or stablecoin, for example, or simply mean using a blockchain ledger to track aid disbursement.

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