America’s federal government is building a website and API called ai.gov to “accelerate government innovation with AI”, according to an early version spotted by 404 Media that was posted on GitHub by the U.S. government’s General Services Administration.
That site “is supposed to launch on July 4,” according to 404 Media’s report, “and will include an analytics feature that shows how much a specific government team is using AI…”
AI.gov appears to be an early step toward pushing AI tools into agencies across the government, code published on Github shows….
The early version of the page suggests that its API will integrate with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic products. But code for the API shows they are also working on integrating with Amazon Web Services’ Bedrock and Meta’s LLaMA. The page suggests it will also have an AI-powered chatbot, though it doesn’t explain what it will do… Currently, AI.gov redirects to whitehouse.gov. The demo website is linked to from Github (archive here) and is hosted on cloud.gov on what appears to be a staging environment. The text on the page does not show up on other websites, suggesting that it is not generic placeholder text…
In February, 404 Media obtained leaked audio from a meeting in which [the director of the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services] told his team they would be creating “AI coding agents” that would write software across the entire government, and said he wanted to use AI to analyze government contracts.
While Oracle is working hard on the next major release of its powerful virtualization software, VirtualBox 7.2, which promises a revamped UI and improvements to ARM virtualization, VirtualBox 7.1.10 is here to introduce initial support for the latest and greatest Linux 6.15 kernel series for both Linux guests and hosts.
Back in May a big patch series was published for reworking the Linux kernel to make the SMP support unconditional. Right now those that happen to be running Linux in a uniprocessor (1 CPU core) configuration can build with “CONFIG_SMP” disabled but the proposed patches would make symmetric multi-processing support always present. Those patches took a step forward this week and could be merged for the Linux 6.17 cycle later in the summer…
Opinions are like Kotaku — they’re a bunch of assholes! I think that’s how that saying goes. Anyway, this week, we liked Pragmata and hated Crimson Desert, felt skeptical of Xbox’s forthcoming handheld and thankful for the Switch 2, and, perhaps most urgently, had a great many things to say about promotional popcorn…
It’s the technology “Google tried (and failed at) more than a decade ago,” writes CNN. (And Meta and Amazon have also previously tried releasing glasses with cameras, speakers and voice assistants.)
Yet this week Snap announced that “it’s building AI-equipped eyewear to be released in 2026.”
Why the “renewed buzz”? CNN sees two factors:
– Smartphones “are no longer exciting enough to entice users to upgrade often.”
– “A desire to capitalize on AI by building new hardware around it.”
Advancements in AI could make them far more useful than the first time around. Emerging AI models can process images, video and speech simultaneously, answer complicated requests and respond conversationally… And market research indicates the interest will be there this time. The smart glasses market is estimated to grow from 3.3 million units shipped in 2024 to nearly 13 million by 2026, according to ABI Research. The International Data Corporation projects the market for smart glasses like those made by Meta will grow from 8.8 in 2025 to nearly 14 million in 2026….
Apple is also said to be working on smart glasses to be released next year that would compete directly with Meta’s, according to Bloomberg. Amazon’s head of devices and services Panos Panay also didn’t rule out the possibility of camera-equipped Alexa glasses similar to those offered by Meta in a February CNN interview. “But I think you can imagine, there’s going to be a whole slew of AI devices that are coming,” he said in February.”
More than two million Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses have been sold since their launch in 2023, the article points out. But besides privacy concerns, “Perhaps the biggest challenge will be convincing consumers that they need yet another tech device in their life, particularly those who don’t need prescription glasses. The products need to be worth wearing on people’s faces all day.”
But still, “Many in the industry believe that the smartphone will eventually be replaced by glasses or something similar to it,” says Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager covering wearable devices for market research firm IDC.
“It’s not going to happen today. It’s going to happen many years from now, and all these companies want to make sure that they’re not going to miss out on that change.”
The Federal Aviation Administration may soon levy fees on companies seeking launch and reentry licenses, a new tack in the push to give the agency the resources it needs to keep up with the rapidly growing commercial space industry.
The text of a budget reconciliation bill released by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) last week calls for the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, known as AST, to begin charging licensing fees to space companies next year. The fees would phase in over eight years, after which the FAA would adjust them to keep pace with inflation. The money would go into a trust fund to help pay for the operating costs of the FAA’s commercial space office.
The bill released by Cruz’s office last week covers federal agencies under the oversight of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he chairs. These agencies include the FAA and NASA. Ars recently covered Cruz’s proposals for NASA to keep the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, and Gateway lunar space station alive, while the Trump administration aims to cancel Gateway and end the SLS and Orion programs after two crew missions to the Moon.
The idea at the core of Exer Gale is a good one; use VR to let players fly like a bird.
Since the dawn of time (or at least, since the birth of imagination) human beings have dreamt of flight. In the year 8 CE, the Roman poet Ovid wrote The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus, in which a craftsman’s son donned wings and flew. At around 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote The Historia Regum Britanniae, which contained the legend of Bladud, a king of the Britons who used necromancy to sprout wings. For nearly twenty years, Red Bull used funny cartoons to advertise that their energy drink could “Give you wings.”
But flight is notoriously difficult. Icarus famously plummeted to his doom when he flew too close to the sun, melting the wax which held his wings together. Bladud flew straight into a wall and dashed his brains out. In 2014, Red Bull settled a multi-million-dollar class-action lawsuit when the drink-maker was sued for false advertising. Apparently, energy drinks don’t give you wings. Who knew?
I dreamt up the paragraphs you’ve just read after spending two hours flying, flapping, diving, and soaring through Exer Gale’s immersive world. And while there are several beautiful elements to this new flight/racing VR game, the core gameplay mechanic just isn’t very fun.
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What is Exer Gale?
Exer Gale is built around a bird-like flying mechanic. You flap your arms to generate upward lift and then lean and twist your head and torso to bank, pitch, and yaw through the air.
It takes place in a sort of tropical archipelago, a central hub where portals take us to various stages. These stages can be thought of as race arenas, or obstacle courses populated with jump pads, wind currents, projectile-launching turrets, and other obstacles, as well as dozens of tantalizing, sparkly gems which hover all over the courses.
The idea is that you flap your wings and soar through the skies, avoiding obstacles, capitalizing on wind currents and jump pads, and collecting as many gems as possible within a set time limit. If you successfully acquire enough gems before time runs out, a new stage unlocks.
In concept, all of this is a wonderful idea. The game world is beautiful. The soundtrack is lovely. There are collectible face masks, tattoos, and jewelry for our character to wear. There’s a multiplayer mode which impressively and seamlessly introduces other players to fly alongside you, and whom you can compete with to set the best time. Stages also have leaderboards and exploring the world through flight is a freeing feeling.
Honestly, who doesn’t want to feel like a bird (or dragon, if you prefer), and who doesn’t want to collect gems? Also, racing is cool. It all sounds like a winning combination, doesn’t it?
Turbulence
Unfortunately, Exer Gale’s core mechanic is just not particularly fun. The controls aren’t as intuitive as I’d hoped and can often be frustrating. Standing in my office with my arms in a T-pose, pitching and tilting while my in-game character sluggishly turns in a lazy arc, only to inevitably splat into a rock, I feel more like the foolish Icarus than Superman.
The worst part, though, is that the endless flapping is literally painful. The collect-a-thon flight stages last, on average, 90 seconds, and it takes just that long to realize all that virtual flapping is killing your real-world rotator cuffs.
For reference, I exercise with weights five times a week, ride motorcycles, run, do endless yard work… I’m not averse to moving my body. But, damn, flying is hard as hell. I guess I have a new respect for birds.
To Exer Gale’s credit, the game world is beautiful, and the game is well-made. The collision detection is excellent, and the team has intelligently created large hitboxes for gem collection so that it’s not too frustrating when we’re trying to string together a long sequence of gems mid-flight. The controls aren’t terrible, but for a game that’s attempting to replicate the imagined effortlessness of soaring flight, Exer Gale is too tricky.
I imagine that the developers know what they’ve made. For them, the gameplay is likely exactly what they’d imagined since day one. I can imagine they wanted to make a game that made you move your body, and one which requires skill and stamina. That said, I can’t help but think that improvements to the control system could have been made or at least offered as an option. A simple button to engage infinite lift, for example, and allowing more complete stick controls would take away what is essentially my only complaint, though it’s unfortunately a big complaint, and make Exer Gale a game that truly lets us feel the thrill, freedom, and speed of flight. Since the game is in Early Access, it’s not unlikely that improvements will come.
I love flight games. Since I was a child, my favorite experiences with games have included the likes of Pilotwings, Panzer Dragoon, Star Fox, and Rez. But Exer Gale asks, “What if Pilotwings made you tired?” For me, that’s a crash landing.
While the Exer Gale early access can be had for free, the $14.99 Exer Gale Premium Edition opens up four more stages, and will allow access to four more in a Summer update. This update will also bring cosmetic items such as masks, tattoos, and wings, and “additional game modes.”
All that said, it costs nothing to try Exer Gale yourself. It’s out now on the Meta Quest store.
While the Linux 6.16 merge window just passed one week ago, already there are new feature changes beginning to queue for the Linux 6.17 kernel later in the summer…
Prominent AMD Mesa developer Marek Olšák this week landed a number of fixes for the RadeonSI Gallium3D driver code in working to enable medium precision “mediump” support for this open-source graphics driver…
We take a quick look at the headline features – and the growing differencesRocky Linux 10 has caught up to the other high-profile RHELatives, but gaps between them are widening, both in tech and other ways.…
Space may be the perfect place to study cancer — and someday even treat it,” writes Space.com:
On Earth, gravity slows the development of cancer because cells normally need to be attached to a surface in order to function and grow. But in space, cancer cell clusters can expand in all directions as bubbles, like budding yeast or grapes, said Shay Soker, chief science program officer at Wake Forest’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Since bubbles grow larger and more quickly in space, researchers can more easily test substances clinging to the edge of the larger bubbles, too. Scientists at the University of Notre Dame are taking advantage of this quirk to develop an in-space cancer test that needs just a single drop of blood. The work builds on a series of bubble-formation experiments that have already been conducted on the ISS. “If cancer screening using our bubble technology in space is democratized and made inexpensive, many more cancers can be screened, and everyone can benefit,” said Tengfei Luo, a Notre Dame researcher who pioneered the technology, speaking to the ISS’ magazine, Upward. “It’s something we may be able to integrate into annual exams. It sounds far-fetched, but it’s achievable….”
Chemotherapy patients could save precious time, too. In normal gravity, they typically have to spend a half-hour hooked up to a needle before the medicine begins to take effect, because most drugs don’t dissolve easily in water. But scientists at Merck have discovered that, in space, their widely used cancer drug pembrolizumab, or Keytruda, can be administered through a simple injection, because large crystalline molecules that would normally clump together are suspended in microgravity… Someday, microgravity could even help patients recovering from surgery heal faster than they would on Earth, Soker added. “Wound healing in high pressure is faster. That’s the hyperbaric treatment for wounds….”
For the Wake Forest experiment, which is scheduled to launch next spring, scientists will cut out two sections of a cancer tumor from around 20 patients. One sample will stay on Earth while the other heads to the ISS, with scientists observing the difference. The testing will be completed within a week, to avoid any interference from cosmic radiation. If successful, Soker said, it could set the stage for diagnostic cancer tests in space available to the general population — perhaps on a biomedical space station that could launch after the planned demise of the ISS. “Can we actually design a special cancer space station that will be dedicated to cancer and maybe other diseases?” Shoker asked, answering his question in the affirmative. “Pharmaceutical companies that have deep pockets would certainly support that program.”
In this article, we’ll take a look into what makes Linux Mint 22 with Cinnamon a standout — from under-the-hood performance boosts to user-facing enhancements that elevate daily computing.
Luckfox has just launched a new development board with a form factor similar to the Raspberry Pi Zero, but based on the Rockchip RK3506B system-on-chip. The Lyra Zero W is designed to offer a low-cost, compact solution for embedded Linux development, priced at $16.99. The Lyra Zero W uses the Rockchip RK3506B processor, which integrates […]
Meta’s CTO, Palantir’s CTO, and OpenAI’s chief product officer are being appointed as lieutenant colonels in America’s Army Reserve, reports The Register. (Along with OpenAI’s former chief revenue officer).
They’ve all signed up for Detachment 201: Executive Innovation Corps, “an effort to recruit senior tech executives to serve part-time in the Army Reserve as senior advisors,” according to the official statement. “In this role they will work on targeted projects to help guide rapid and scalable tech solutions to complex problems…”
“Our primary role will be to serve as technical experts advising the Army’s modernization efforts,” [Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth] said on X…
As for Open AI’s involvement, the company has been building its ties with the military-technology complex for some years now. Like Meta, OpenAI is working with Anduril on military ideas and last year scandalized some by watering down its past commitment to developing non-military products only. The Army wasn’t answering questions on Friday but an article referenced by [OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin] Weil indicated that the four will have to serve a minimum of 120 hours a year, can work remotely, and won’t have to pass basic training…
“America wins when we unite the dynamism of American innovation with the military’s vital missions,” [Palantir CTO Shyam] Sankar said on X. “This was the key to our triumphs in the 20th century. It can help us win again. I’m humbled by this new opportunity to serve my country, my home, America.”
Nitrux developer Uri Herrera announced today that their NX Desktop graphical environment, based on the KDE Plasma desktop, will no longer be developed and replaced by Hyprland.
This is a spoiler-free preview of the first five episodes of season three.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ended its second season with arguably the single strongest run of any streaming-era Trek. The show was made with such confidence in all departments that if there were flaws, you weren’t interested in looking for them. Since then, it’s gone from being the best modern Trek, to being the only modern Trek. Unfortunately, at the moment it needs to be the standard bearer for the show, it’s become noticeably weaker and less consistent.
As usual, I’ve seen the first five episodes, but can’t reveal specifics about what I’ve seen. I can say plenty of the things that made Strange New Worlds the best modern-day live-action Trek remain in place. It’s a show that’s happy for you to spend time with its characters as they hang out, and almost all of them are deeply charming. This is, after all, a show that uses as motif the image of the crew in Pike’s quarters as the captain cooks for his crew.
Its format, with standalone adventures blended with serialized character drama, means it can offer something new every week. Think back to the first season, when “Memento Mori,” a tense action thriller with the Gorn, was immediately followed by “Spock Amock,” a goofy, starbase-set body-swap romantic comedy of manners centered around Spock. Strange New Worlds is the first Trek in a long while to realize audiences don’t just want a ceaseless slog of stern-faced, angry grimdark. And if they want that, they can go watch Picard and Section 31.
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
But, as much as those things are SNW’s greatest strength, it’s a delicate balance to ensure the series doesn’t lurch too far either way. And, it pains me to say this, the show spends the first five episodes of its third season going too far in both directions (although, mercifully, not at the same time). No specifics, but one episode I’m sure was on the same writers room whiteboard wishlist as last season’s musical episode. What was clearly intended as a chance for everyone to get out of their usual roles and have fun falls flat. Because the episode can never get past the sense it’s too delighted in its own silliness to properly function.
Marni Grossman/Paramount+
At the other end of the scale, we get sprints toward the eye-gouging grimdark that blighted those other series. Sure, the series has gone to dark places before, but previously with more of a sense of deftness, rather than just going for the viscerally-upsetting gore. A cynic might suggest that, as Paramount’s other Trek projects ended, franchise-overseer Alex Kurtzman — who has pushed the franchise into “grittier” territory whenever he can — had more time to spend in the SNW writers’ room.
Much as I’ve enjoyed the series’ soapier elements, the continuing plotlines take up an ever bigger part of each episode’s runtime so far. Consequently, the story of the week gets less service, making them feel weaker and less coherent. One episode pivots two thirds of the way in to act as a low-key sequel to an episode from season two. But since we’ve only got ten minutes left, it feels thrown in as an afterthought, or to resolve a thread the creative team felt they were obliged to deal with (they didn’t).
In fact, this and the recently-finished run of Doctor Who suffered from the same problem that blights so many streaming-era shows, which is the limited episode order. Rather than producing TV on the scale broadcast networks were able to — yearly runs of 22-, 24- or 26 episodes, a lot of (expensive) genre shows get less than half that. The result is that each episode has to be More Important Than The Last One in a way that’s exhausting for a viewer.
But Strange New Worlds can’t solve all the economic issues with the streaming model on its own. My hope is that, much like in its first season, the weaker episodes are all in its front half to soften us up for the moments of quality that followed toward its conclusion.
ASIDE: Shortly before publication, Paramount announced Strange New Worldswould end in its fifth season, which would be cut from ten episodes to six. It’s not surprising — given the equally-brilliant Lower Decks was also axed after passing the same milestone — but it is disappointing. My only hope is that the series doesn’t spend that final run awkwardly killing off the series’ young ensemble one by one in order to replace them with the entire original series’ roster as to make it “line up.” Please, let them be their own things.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-third-season-falls-short-of-its-second-020030139.html?src=rss
In 1989 a computer scientist argued that more functionality in software actually lowers usability and practicality — leading to the counterintuitive proposition that “worse is better”. But is that still true?
Python’s original creator Guido van Rossum addressed the question last month in a lightning talk at the annual Python Language Summit 2025.
Guido started by recounting earlier periods of Python development from 35 years ago, where he used UNIX “almost exclusively” and thus “Python was greatly influenced by UNIX’s ‘worse is better’ philosophy”… “The fact that [Python] wasn’t perfect encouraged many people to start contributing. All of the code was straightforward, there were no thoughts of optimization… These early contributors also now had a stake in the language; [Python] was also their baby”…
Guido contrasted early development to how Python is developed now: “features that take years to produce from teams of software developers paid by big tech companies. The static type system requires an academic-level understanding of esoteric type system features.” And this isn’t just Python the language, “third-party projects like numpy are maintained by folks who are paid full-time to do so…. Now we have a huge community, but very few people, relatively speaking, are contributing meaningfully.”
Guido asked whether the expectation for Python contributors going forward would be that “you had to write a perfect PEP or create a perfect prototype that can be turned into production-ready code?” Guido pined for the “old days” where feature development could skip performance or feature-completion to get something into the hands of the community to “start kicking the tires”. “Do we have to abandon ‘worse is better’ as a philosophy and try to make everything as perfect as possible?” Guido thought doing so “would be a shame”, but that he “wasn’t sure how to change it”, acknowledging that core developers wouldn’t want to create features and then break users with future releases.
Guido referenced David Hewitt’s PyO3 talk about Rust and Python, and that development “was using worse is better,” where there is a core feature set that works, and plenty of work to be done and open questions. “That sounds a lot more fun than working on core CPython”, Guido paused, “…not that I’d ever personally learn Rust. Maybe I should give it a try after,” which garnered laughter from core developers.
“Maybe we should do more of that: allowing contributors in the community to have a stake and care”.
LibreOffice 25.8 beta is now available for this popular open-source office suite. LibreOffice 25.8 has been baking many improvements for this popular Microsoft Office alternative and leading office suite option for the Linux desktop…
