The Austrian Ministry for Economic Affairs drops foreign clouds for a homegrown Nextcloud and LibreOffice solution, illustrating Europe’s steady move toward digital independence.
The post Austria Says ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Proprietary and ‘Willkommen’ to Open Source appeared first on FOSS Force.
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I’ve been seeing a lot more interior design content on my feed lately, likely because I moved to a new home this year. Most of the content advising on living rooms talks about the furniture revolving around the TV. If you’re looking to wow your next guests, a TV that doubles are art will look much better than a big black rectangle. The 75-inch Samsung The Frame is the original canvas TV, and it’s $1,100 off right now, currently $1,797.99 (originally $2,997.99). This is matching the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools
Samsung’s The Frame smart TVs have come a long way since their 2017 release. Launched to appeal to the crowd that wants a big TV but doesn’t want that TV to dominate their decor, one of the newer features, released last year, introduced an anti-reflection matte display that took the “framed artwork” aspect to new levels—and with 4K picture quality. As the name implies, the allure of this TV is that it can double as a digital art frame, with its anti-glare matte display and customizable frame.
I first saw the 2022 version up close when it was released, admittedly having been fooled by my brother into thinking it was an actual painting (it really does look like one). The matte screen does a good job of making the TV seem like a painting, and it’s great for bright rooms that might otherwise get a lot of glare from the screen. This version had an “average” review from PCMag due mainly to poor contrast and price. However, the new 2024 version is the latest generation of this series and has notable improvements.
You’ll get an improved refresh rate of 120Hz, the same QLED display, and 4K resolution with a Quantum 4K processor. You can buy frames separately to your taste, and even design them with a Harry Potter theme, like this guy did on TikTok.
We all have anecdotal evidence of chatbots blowing smoke up our butts, but now we have science to back it up. Researchers at Stanford, Harvard and other institutions just published a study in Nature about the sycophantic nature of AI chatbots and the results should surprise no one. Those cute little bots just love patting us on our heads and confirming whatever nonsense we just spewed out.
The researchers investigated advice issued by chatbots and they discovered that their penchant for sycophancy “was even more widespread than expected.” The study involved 11 chatbots, including recent versions of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude and Meta’s Llama. The results indicate that chatbots endorse a human’s behavior 50 percent more than a human does.
They conducted several types of tests with different groups. One compared responses by chatbots to posts on Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole” thread to human responses. This is a subreddit in which people ask the community to judge their behavior, and Reddit users were much harder on these transgressions than the chatbots.
But there’s a darker side…
MIT researchers used Reddit’s “Am I The Asshole?” data to test how AI models become overly sycophantic and agreeable
Your most vulnerable moments are training tomorrow’s AI. pic.twitter.com/vRgYSjudGh
— anarchy.build (@anarchy_build) July 19, 2025
One poster wrote about tying a bag of trash to a tree branch instead of throwing it away, to which ChatGPT-4o declared that the person’s “intention to clean up” after themself was “commendable.” The study went on to suggest that chatbots continued to validate users even when they were “irresponsible, deceptive or mentioned self-harm”, according to a report by The Guardian.
What’s the harm in indulging a bit of digital sycophancy? Another test had 1,000 participants discuss real or hypothetical scenarios with publicly available chatbots, but some of them had been reprogrammed to tone down the praise. Those who received the sycophantic responses were less willing to patch things up when arguments broke out and felt more justified in their behavior, even when it violated social norms. It’s also worth noting that the traditional chatbots very rarely encouraged users to see things from another person’s perspective.
“That sycophantic responses might impact not just the vulnerable but all users, underscores the potential seriousness of this problem,” said Dr. Alexander Laffer, who studies emergent technology at the University of Winchester. “There is also a responsibility on developers to be building and refining these systems so that they are truly beneficial to the user.”
A study found 33% of teenagers use AI chatbots for companionship, conversation practice, and romance
They found talking to AI easier than talking to real people and use it for emotional support pic.twitter.com/AbCZbv6tpK
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) July 26, 2025
This is serious because of just how many people use these chatbots. A recent report by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society suggested that 30 percent of teenagers talk to AI rather than actual human beings for “serious conversations.” OpenAI is currently embroiled in a lawsuit that accuses its chatbot of enabling a teen’s suicide. The company Character AI has also been sued twice after a pair of teenage suicides in which the teens spent months confiding in its chatbots.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/surprising-no-one-researchers-confirm-that-ai-chatbots-are-incredibly-sycophantic-185935470.html?src=rss
Leaked screenshots show off a highly detailed restoration that puts the crappy 2006 versions of the theatrical cuts to shame
The post Holy Crap, It Looks Like Disney Is Finally Restoring And Releasing The Original Version Of <i>Star Wars</i> appeared first on Kotaku.
Yesterday, Donald Trump announced on social media that he had been planning to “surge” troops into San Francisco this weekend—but was dissuaded from doing so by several tech billionaires.
“Friends of mine who live in the area called last night to ask me not to go forward with the surge,” Trump wrote.
Who are these “friends”? Trump named “great people like [Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang, [Salesforce CEO] Marc Benioff, and others” who told him that “the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a ‘shot.’ Therefore, we will not surge San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!”
EA has already
I recently stepped back aboard Solara One to revisit how floating among the stars can take me to a place of deep relaxation and contemplation. Now, in its latest update, I learn how to bring music to the cosmos. Read on for my impressions.
I covered Solara One when it appeared last year, and the first time I played it, the sense of awe and wonder I got felt uplifting. While floating among some of the most detailed space scenery I’ve seen on Quest, I felt the overview effect orbiting a highly detailed model of the Earth that stayed with me long after the experience had ended.
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Inside the Solara One lounge
Solara One is a deeply personal project from developer Aaron Cryderman of AC Reality that values atmosphere over explosions. The latest update doesn’t overhaul the world but instead expands it by adding a new area of the space station to explore.
Prior to the update, there was only a single lounge to inhabit; after listening to user feedback, Cryderman added an elevator that takes us to our new highly detailed private stateroom and also leads to an area resembling the Holodeck from Star Trek, with a sign teasing that an arboretum is the next area we will get to explore on Solara One soon.
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Touring the new stateroom environment with Aaron Cryderman
The stateroom environment has plenty to keep you occupied in between meditations, like working kitchen appliances and a fully functional bathroom. The centerpiece, however, is a full-sized synthesizer placed in front of a large window that overlooks the wonders of the cosmos.
I spent way more time than I had expected composing musical scores that fit with the wonderful space visuals I was taking in through the window. What felt like minutes was actually closer to an hour, as the time seemed to melt away along with all of the stress of my day. I’m not the best composer, but the developer sent along a few custom tracks, which you can enjoy below:
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Piano sample song performed by Aaron Cryderman
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Voices sample song performed by Aaron Cryderman
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Brass sample song performed by Aaron Cryderman
We will be keeping an eye on AC Reality for the upcoming arboretum update, but until then, if you’re looking for a unique way to make music among the stars or just shed the stress of a hard day, a trip to Solara One might just be what you need.
You can pick up a copy of Solara One here and also don’t forget to join us for VR Sideload this week where I’ll be talking more about my experience in the update and we’ll also be hearing directly from the developer himself sharing his thoughts on the creation of the game so be sure to tune in.
An anonymous reader shares a report: The first announcement that Lip-Bu Tan made a day after becoming the permanent chief executive of Intel was about massive layoffs to right-size the company in accordance with market realities. Now, the extent of those layoffs is becoming clearer, indicating Intel let go of as many as 20,500 employees in about three months. If we add 15,000 positions eliminated by the previous management, that means Intel reduced its headcount by 35,500 people in less than two years.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Earlier this month, Tesla rolled out a new firmware update that added a pair of new driving modes for the controversial full self-driving (FSD) feature. One, called “Sloth,” relaxes acceleration and stays in its lane. The other, called “Mad Max,” does the opposite: It speeds and swerves through traffic to get you to your destination faster. And after multiple reports of FSD Teslas doing just that, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to know more.
In fact, “Mad Max” mode is not entirely new—Tesla beta-tested the same feature in Autopilot in 2018, before deciding not to roll it out in a production release after widespread outcry.
These days, the company is evidently feeling less constrained; despite having just lost a federal wrongful death lawsuit that will cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, it described the new mode as being able to drive “through traffic at an incredible pace, all while still being super smooth. It drives your car like a sports car. If you are running late, this is the mode for you.”
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Pretty much every fitness tracker and smartwatch has an optical heart rate sensor, but they’re not always perfectly accurate. Not only can you get better accuracy by wearing a chest strap heart rate monitor, you can even use a chest strap without a fitness watch—just connect it to your phone. Chest straps don’t break the bank, either; my favorite is around 30 bucks.
Chest straps come in two varieties: electrical and optical. When I say a chest strap is more accurate than a watch, I’m talking about the electrical kind. These use electrodes that contact your skin, and sometimes you may need to wait until you’ve worked up a bit of a sweat before they get a good connection (although I haven’t found that to be an issue in my workouts).
That makes them far more accurate than optical sensors, which are the type you’ll see on the back of a smartwatch. Optical sensors are also on armbands like the Polar Verity Sense, and on some chest straps. Most chest straps are the electrical type, including the Polar H10, the Wahoo TRACKR, and the Coospo I mentioned above. You can tell an electrical sensor because it has metal connectors or contact points instead of a green light.
The optical sensors in watches use a green light, and they pick up your heart rate by detecting the light that bounces off your blood vessels as the blood pulses through. Relying on light means that they don’t always work as well through tattoos and may struggle with accuracy on darker skin tones. They can also be confused by outside light, which is why they aren’t as accurate if your watch is worn loosely or is too large to get a good fit. Runners sometimes experience “cadence lock,” where the cadence of their footsteps (170 steps per minute, let’s say) causes the watch to think your heart is beating at exactly that rhythm. If your app reports a heart rate that is the same as your cadence, there’s a good chance it wasn’t measuring your heart rate at all.
You can sidestep all of those issues by wearing a chest strap. As I’ve found in my device reviews, even the most accurate watches won’t always record your heart rate perfectly 100% of the time. If you care a lot about your heart rate in training, just get the chest strap.
I’ve been wearing a cheap Coospo heart rate monitor for years. I didn’t borrow it for a review, I just bought one because I wanted a cheap and easy way to track my heart rate without a watch. (I was doing a lot of kettlebell workouts, and the kettlebell rests gently on your wrist during overhead exercises, where a watch would be in the way.
I’ve kept using it since then. It’s been happily paired with an iPhone, a Peloton, an Apple Watch, a series of Garmins, and probably a bunch of others I’ve forgotten about. When I write the “accuracy” section in my fitness watch comparisons and reviews, I use the Coospo (either paired to my phone or to a third watch) to get a gold-standard heart rate graph to see how the tested devices stack up.
The Coospo heart rate monitor I have is a slightly older version of the one linked above (since I’ve had it so long). It uses Bluetooth and also supports ANT+, and it gets its power from a coin cell battery that I have to change out roughly once a year. It doesn’t have any on-device storage space, which I don’t need, because it beams the data directly to the connected watch or phone. It’s comfortable and easy to adjust. The device pops off so I can wash the strap. And even though there are more expensive straps out there (like the $100 Polar H10, which I’ve heard is great), I cannot think of a single chest strap feature I could possibly care about that I don’t already have.
On my iPhone, I found the simplest way was to download the Polar Beat app (free on iOS and Android), which pairs with my strap over Bluetooth. If you’re going for a run or a bike ride while carrying your phone, it can also use your phone’s GPS to track your pace and record where you went on a map.
I tend to use mine for indoor cycling, though, and for kettlebell workouts (which I log as “other indoor”). Using a strap without a watch is especially handy with kettlebells, since the bell otherwise knocks into the watch in certain positions. But if you have a fitness watch and you like using it, most models will allow you to pair the watch with a chest strap directly. That way you can get the most accurate readings, and be able to check the numbers from your wrist.
There’s been another turn in WordPress creator Automattic’s ongoing legal battle with WordPress provider WP Engine. In a counterclaim Automattic filed as part of WP Engine’s lawsuit against the company, the WordPress creator claims investment from private equity firm Silver Lake led WP Engine to violate its trademarks and fail to contribute to the open-source WordPress project.
Automattic believes that following a $250 million investment from Silver Lake, which gave the firm a controlling interest in WP Engine, the hosting provider “sought to inflate its valuation and engineer a quick, lucrative exit.” It allegedly did that, per the counterclaim, by describing itself as the “WordPress Technology Company” and allowing its partners to refer to it as “WordPress Engine,” violations of the WordPress trademark. Automattic claims products WP Engine released like “Core WordPress” and “Headless WordPress” further obfuscated who created and developed the blogging platform’s technology, while the company also failed to commit a promised “five percent of its resources to support the WordPress project.”
The counterclaim goes on to say that Automattic and WordPress co-found Matt Mullenweg tried to work out these issues with WP Engine by offering a “fair trademark license,” but the company only “pretended to engage in licensing discussions,” while actually delaying any kind of agreement because it would “impact its earnings.” Keeping earnings up was important to WP Engine because Silver Lake was allegedly trying to sell WP Engine at a $2 billion valuation, and had even made “overtures to Automattic” about it.
That’s a different story than the one WP Engine spun in its original lawsuit against Automattic, which accused Mullenweg of “abuse of power, extortion and greed.” WP Engine’s original complaint claimed that Automattic asked the company for eight percent of its monthly revenue as a royalty payment. Mullenweg’s attempts to punish WP Engine were seen as so aggressive at the time that over 100 Automattic employees voluntarily left the company in response. WP Engine won a preliminary injunction in response to its lawsuit, but it seems like the story might be more complicated than it originally appeared.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/wordpress-creator-files-countersuit-against-wp-engine-over-trademark-violations-182123827.html?src=rss
Meta violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to give Facebook and Instagram users simple mechanisms to report illegal content, the European Commission said in a preliminary decision announced yesterday. Meta also failed to give users an effective way to challenge content moderation decisions, the EC said.
“When it comes to Meta, neither Facebook nor Instagram appear to provide a user-friendly and easily accessible ‘Notice and Action’ mechanism for users to flag illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material and terrorist content,” the EC press release said. The EC said that Meta mechanisms seem to “impose several unnecessary steps and additional demands on users. In addition, both Facebook and Instagram appear to use so-called ‘dark patterns,’ or deceptive interface designs, when it comes to the ‘Notice and Action’ mechanisms.”
The EC also found that the content moderation appeal mechanisms used by Facebook and Instagram do not “allow users to provide explanations or supporting evidence to substantiate their appeals. This makes it difficult for users in the EU to further explain why they disagree with Meta’s content decision, limiting the effectiveness of the appeals mechanism.”
I’ve been changing the brightness the wrong way all this time
The post It Took Me Eight Years To Discover My Favorite Switch Feature appeared first on Kotaku.
Bank Road in Matlock plays host to the 2025 CTT National Hill Climb Championship this weekend and BikeRadar will be there, hunting down the weirdest, lightest, sketchiest and most wonderful bikes on show.
The Nationals mark the finale of Britain’s short but savage hill climb season, a uniquely British racing niche that sits entirely outside UCI regulation.
This sees riders strip their bikes to the bare minimum in pursuit of speed, racing solo against the clock in a time trial format on climbs lasting anywhere from one to 20 minutes.
From high-end carbon frames with the paint sanded off, to featherweight fixies and DIY creations held together with little more than hope, the National Hill Climb always delivers a brilliant mix of ingenuity and pure suffering.
Always a professional and personal highlight of my year, I’ll be there this year for the whole weekend to document the best bikes on show. If you’re racing and think your setup deserves a moment in the spotlight, send a few photos and a short description of your bike to news@bikeradar.com. If it catches our eye, I’ll be in touch – and you and your bike can enjoy your five minutes of fame.
This year’s course covers 834 metres of Bank Road and Rutland Street, finishing on Wellington Street. It averages a brutal 14 per cent, pitching up to 20 per cent near halfway – short, sharp, and guaranteed to make even the fittest riders see stars.
We’ve been to Bank Road before, and it never fails to deliver. Back in 2016, former BikeRadar staff member Joe Norledge rode the Nationals on a custom 5.1kg Engineered Bikes fixed gear, stripping every gram he could while still keeping it rideable.
Inspired by the sound of this gloriously painful event? Come and watch the action unfold on Bank Road, Matlock, from 10:45 on Sunday 24 October.
Larry Sanger, who helped launch Wikipedia in 2001 before being ousted by co-founder Jimmy Wales a year later, has spent years arguing the online encyclopedia has abandoned its commitment to neutrality. Leading conservatives in the second Trump administration are now amplifying his critique. Elon Musk announced plans to launch an AI-powered alternative called Grokipedia this week, calling Wikipedia “hopelessly biased.” Senator Ted Cruz sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation demanding answers about what he termed “ideological bias.” House Republicans opened an investigation into possible platform manipulation.
Sanger published “Nine Theses” on reforming Wikipedia and appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show. His arguments circulated widely among conservatives, including Trump’s AI czar David Sacks. Sanger recently converted to Christianity and voted for Trump in 2024. He is working to recruit hundreds of conservatives to become active Wikipedia editors. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales maintains that neutrality remains the site’s core policy.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This week, as the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2026 route was presented, Zwift announced a 3-year extension of their TdFFaZ presenting partnership with Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.). Read yesterday’s press release below…
Zwift, the global online fitness platform for cyclists, is today proud to announce the extension of its sponsorship of Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, continuing as Presenting Partner until at least 2029. The deal marks a continuation of a long-term partnership with A.S.O. that saw the introduction of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to the UCI calendar in 2022.
“This is much more than a sponsorship for Zwift, it’s a part of our identity, underpinned by our mission to make more people, more active, more often.” Says Eric Min, Zwift CEO and Co-Founder of Zwift. “Growing women’s participation in cycling is a critical mission. We truly believe that to be successful, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is essential. The first four years of this partnership have been incredible. The excitement is tangible and the impact is clear. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve over the next four years and beyond.”
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was born from a shared vision between Zwift and A.S.O. to elevate women’s cycling to the global stage it deserves. The partnership began with the Virtual Tour de France in 2020, launched during the pandemic with equal fields for both men and women, to keep racing alive and connect fans around the world. The success of this event cemented the co-determination to bring back a Tour de France for women. That vision became reality with the launch of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, a milestone moment that continues to inspire, engage, and grow the sport globally.
“The Tour de France has always been the most famous race in cycling and it has been fantastic to have it added to the calendar for the women’s peloton,” says Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto rider and 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner. “Winning the iconic yellow jersey has been the highlight of my career and it is so exciting that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will continue to be the biggest race on the calendar and show off the excitement of women’s cycling to people around the world.”
Central to Zwift’s mission to grow women’s cycling is the Watch The Femmes campaign. Over four years, the call to action has evolved into a movement, inviting everyone who supports women’s cycling, from media and industry partners to brands and fans, to unite around a shared goal: growing the sport and ensuring women’s cycling receives the visibility and recognition it needs to continue thriving. The impact of this united effort is clear in the rising visibility and audience engagement around women’s cycling. There is no race on the women’s calendar that has helped bring more attention to the sport. 2025 brought an average audience of 2.7 million viewers per stage, in France alone, with the coverage accounting for a 31.6% audience share. The final stage with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot storming to victory brought a peak audience of 7.7 million. Since the introduction of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2022, Zwift has also seen an increase in the number of women joining the platform. Currently, 23% of new subscribers are women – a notable increase since the first edition of the race in 2022, where women accounted for 18% of new subscribers.
“The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift continues to break records and exceed even our own expectations,” says Marion Rousse, Director of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. “It’s a pleasure to work alongside a partner that helps amplify the race and women’s professional cycling in the way that Zwift does. We’ve achieved a lot already and I’m excited that we can continue this journey together.”
For more information on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, head to www.letourfemmes.fr/en
More information on Zwift’s Watch The Femmes, head to https://www.zwift.com/watchthefemmes
Instagram’s latest feature should make it easier to resurface videos you’ve viewed. On Friday, Adam Mosseri revealed a new watch history for Reels. “Hopefully, now you can find that thing that you were trying to find that you couldn’t find before,” the Instagram CEO said.
We could see the feature coming in handy. For example, when you see something interesting but lose it due to an accidental tap or app refresh.
You can find it on Instagram under Settings > Your activity > Watch history. The feature lets you sort by newest to oldest or vice versa. You can also jump to a specific date or date range, and filter by the account that posted it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-adds-a-watch-history-for-reels-175555668.html?src=rss
Merged for Linux 6.18 was a new feature called Sheaves as an opt-in, per-CPU array-based caching layer. Plus there is a per-NUMA-node cache of Sheaves called a “Barn”. In continuing to build out the Linux kernel usage of Sheaves, a set of initial patches were posted this week to replace the CPU slabs with Sheaves within the slub allocator code…
