As of this week Oracle’s latest VirtualBox development code begins to work with Linux’s native KVM back-end. Support for KVM or other native OS hypervisors in conjunction with VirtualBox has long been sought and it’s finally becoming a reality…
GTK Developers Working On Session Saving Support & Better Accessibility This Year
GTK toolkit developers met in Brussels once again for their annual hackfest during FOSDEM week…
Qualcomm QUPv3 Firmware Upstreamed For Snapdragon X1 Elite Linux Users
One of the headaches right now when dealing with the Snapdragon X Elite on Linux is that for a majority of the devices you need to fetch firmware files from the Windows 11 on ARM partition as the necessary firmware bits for Linux use aren’t upstreamed to linux-firmware.git. That has gradually improved over time from the qcom-firmware-extract making the process easier to more firmware bits eventually being added to linux-firmware.git…
Why This Is the Worst Crypto Winter Ever
Bitcoin has fallen roughly 44% from its October peak, and while the drawdown isn’t crypto’s deepest ever on a percentage basis, Bloomberg’s Odd Lots newsletter lays out a case that this is the industry’s worst winter yet. The macro backdrop was supposed to favor Bitcoin: public confidence in the dollar is shaky, the Trump administration has been crypto-friendly, and fiat currencies are under perceived stress globally. Yet gold, not Bitcoin, has been the safe haven of choice.
The “we’re so early” narrative is dead — crypto ETFs exist, barriers to entry are zero, and the online community that once rallied holders through downturns has largely hollowed out. Institutional adoption arrived but hasn’t lifted existing tokens like ETH or SOL; Wall Street cares about stablecoins and tokenization, not the coins themselves. AI is pulling both talent and miners toward data centers. Quantum computing advances threaten Bitcoin’s encryption. And MicroStrategy and other Bitcoin treasury companies, once steady buyers during the bull run, are now large holders who may eventually become forced sellers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How to evaluate your use of classroom technology with the PICRAT framework
There’s always something new to consider when teaching with technology. From the latest advancements in AI, to new software and hardware updates, it can be difficult to know which tools to use and how to incorporate it effectively into your lessons.
In today’s blog, we explore the PICRAT framework and how it can help you reflect on your use of technology in the classroom.
We also share our new PICRAT Quick Read, which you can download for free to:
- Find practical tips on how to use the PICRAT model when planning your lessons
- Read a summary of the research behind the framework
What is the PICRAT framework?
Technology is constantly changing, and educators must continually decide what tools to use in their practice. To help with this challenge, researchers started developing theoretical models that teachers (especially student teachers) could use to reflect on how they integrate technology in their classrooms.
You might already be familiar with frameworks like TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) and SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition). While these models are useful, the PICRAT framework was created to address gaps in these earlier models, offering a clearer, student-focused approach. Significantly, it encourages you to treat technology as a tool to support learning, rather than the goal itself.
It asks two simple questions: “How are students experiencing the technology?” and “How does this impact your practice?”. The answers to these questions form a matrix as pictured below.
PIC (which runs along the y-axis) refers to the student’s relationship to the technology:
- Passive – Students receive learning through technology
- Interactive – Students interact with the content or other learning through technology
- Creative – Students construct knowledge using technology
RAT (which runs along the x-axis) refers to how the teacher uses the technology:
- Replaces – Using technology but with an existing pedagogy
- Amplifies – Using technology to improve pedagogy or outcomes
- Transforms – Using technology to create new pedagogical practices
How can I apply the PICRAT model?
First choose the lesson you’re planning to deliver. Consider what activities you’ll be running and the technologies involved. You’ll then be able to plot where they sit on the matrix using the PICRAT acronym.
For example, if you are teaching a lesson on Python loops, you might initially plan for students to watch a pre-recorded coding tutorial on their laptops. In this scenario, the student experience is Passive (receiving info via tech), and the teacher’s use is Replacement because the video simply replaces a live lecture. To move up the matrix, you could instead have students use an online IDE to complete a “Parson’s Problem” puzzle where they rearrange blocks of code to fix a loop. This shifts the activity to Interactive and Amplification, as the digital tool provides immediate debugging feedback that a paper-based exercise could not.
Next, think about how you might move your practice forwards. Although every position on the matrix has its own value, the framework is hierarchical. The overall goal is to try to move your practice towards the top right of the matrix to be Creative and Transformative.
To help you achieve this, take some time to reflect on your current lessons, activities, and the technologies you use. Ask yourself questions like:
- What does the technology I’m using offer that could be used to amplify my practice?
- What benefits would this have for students?
- Does the technology present opportunities for students to interact with each other, not just the technology?
- What other technological tools might support collaboration?
Research highlights that technology is rarely used in ways that allow young people to be creative. By using the PICRAT matrix, teachers can identify missed opportunities and explore ways to transform their lessons, ensuring learners can be creative and thrive.
The benefits of the PICRAT model
Potential benefits for educators:
- The framework encourages meaningful reflections, allowing teachers to easily evaluate how they’re using technology within their lessons
- Reflections and the PICRAT matrix helps teachers to identify missed opportunities and gaps in their practice, ultimately leading to better student experiences
You can use the PICRAT framework as part of your own reflections, or as part of a group activity. It’s a great way to spark discussion about technology integration with colleagues and improve best practices.
Want to find out more about the PICRAT framework?
If you’d like to learn more about the PICRAT model, you can download our Quick Read for free via our new Pedagogy Quick Reads page.
The post How to evaluate your use of classroom technology with the PICRAT framework appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Which of these legendary Tour de France climbs is hardest? Find out this summer
The high-octane hairpins of Alpe d’Huez versus the high-altitude grind of the Col du Galibier? Each of these incredible, storied peaks offers a mouth-watering opportunity to test the legs, but which is the greater challenge?
Thanks to Club Med’s resorts being positioned at the foot and summit of these Alpine climbs, you’ll be located perfectly to take them on.
With expert-led guided rides, included equipment and the peace of mind that comes with all-inclusive stays, Club Med’s Alp d’Huez and Serre Chevalier resorts are great places to challenge yourself without losing out on much-needed recovery time.
Let’s compare what it takes to tackle these two iconic Tour de France climbs and explore why Club Med gives you the edge with both.
Alpe d’Huez
Often referred to as the ‘Eiffel Tower’ of cycling, Alpe d’Huez is sharp and intense.
Key stats: 13.8km at an average 8.1% incline.
The challenge: It’s a power climb throughout, with 21 hairpins. While the road is wide and the surface is excellent, this ascent is a relentless assault on your legs and lungs. Be careful on the first six hairpins, because these are the steepest, at a steady 10-12% incline.
Club Med advantage: The Alpe d’Huez resort lies at the summit, meaning you can start at the top and warm up with a 20-minute descent through the 21 hairpins to get a feel for the road. By the time you’ve done so, you’ll be ready for your attempt at tackling the climb, before rolling into the resort for a much-needed breakfast and massage.
Col du Galibier
If Alpe d’Huez is a sprint, Col du Galibier is more of a marathon that requires endurance and grit to conquer.
Key stats: 34.8km at an average of 6.1%.
The challenge: The summit sits at 2,642m. At that height, you’re losing roughly 10-15% of your aerobic capacity. And that final 7km? A challenging 10% incline at an altitude your lungs will feel.
Club Med advantage: The Serre Chevalier resort grants you a supported ascent with a team of guides who’ll know exactly how to pace you through the ‘false flats’ that catch out many solo riders.
The verdict: which is harder?
The verdict, of course, depends on where your strengths lie.
For a test of raw power, Alpe d’Huez is the equivalent of an epic HIIT class. But if you favour endurance, the Galibier is your climb.
*Club Med is financially protected – ABTA: V6608, ATOL: 10020. Learn more here.
CIA Has Killed Off The World Factbook After Six Decades
The CIA has shut down The World Factbook, one of its oldest and most recognizable public-facing intelligence publications, ending a run that began as a classified reference document in 1962 and evolved into a freely accessible digital resource that drew millions of views each year.
The agency offered no explanation for the decision. Originally titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, the publication first went unclassified in 1971, was renamed a decade later, and moved online at CIA.gov in 1997. It served researchers, news organizations, teachers, students and international travelers. The site hosted more than 5,000 copyright-free photographs, some donated by CIA officers from their personal travel. Every page now redirects to a farewell announcement.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google Confirms AirDrop Sharing is Coming To Android Phones Beyond Pixels
Google’s Quick Share-AirDrop interoperability, which has been exclusive to the Pixel 10 series since its surprise launch last year, is headed to a much broader set of Android devices in 2026.
Eric Kay, Google’s Vice President of Engineering for the Android platform, confirmed the expansion during a press briefing at the company’s Taipei office, saying Google is “working with our partners to expand it into the rest of the ecosystem” and that announcements are coming “very soon.” Nothing is the only OEM to have publicly confirmed it’s working on support, though Qualcomm has also hinted at enabling the feature on Snapdragon-powered phones.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The European Commission Is Testing an Open Source Alternative To Microsoft Teams
The European Commission is preparing to trial a communications platform built on Matrix, the open source messaging protocol already used by the French government, German healthcare providers and European armed forces, as a sovereign backup to Microsoft Teams.
Signal currently serves as the backup tool but has proven too inflexible for an organization the Commission’s size, it said. The Matrix-based solution could also eventually connect the Commission to other EU bodies like the Parliament.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A Baldur’s Gate TV Show Is Happening In The Worst Way Possible
Craig Mazin, the showrunner behind HBO’s The Last of Us series, is heading up the adaptation
GNU/Linux or Just Linux? Between Purism and Everyday Usage
A critical look at the GNU/Linux naming debate and why everyday usage settled on the shorter, simpler term: Linux.
Court Rules That Ripping YouTube Clips Can Violate the DMCA
A federal court in California has ruled that YouTube creators who use stream-ripping tools to download clips for reaction and commentary videos may face liability under the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions — a decision that could reshape how one of the platform’s most popular content genres operates.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi of the Northern District of California denied a motion to dismiss in Cordova v. Huneault, a creator-versus-creator dispute, finding that YouTube’s “rolling cipher” technology qualifies as an access control measure under section 1201(a) even though the underlying videos are freely viewable by the public. The distinction matters because it separates the act of watching a video from the act of downloading it.
The defense had argued that no ripping tools were actually used and that screen recording could account for the copied footage. Judge DeMarchi allowed the claim to proceed to discovery regardless, noting that the plaintiff had adequately pled the circumvention allegation. The ruling opens a legal avenue beyond standard copyright infringement for creators who want to go after rivals. Reaction channels have long leaned on fair use as a blanket defense, but plaintiff’s attorney Randall S. Newman told TorrentFreak that circumventing copy protections under section 1201 is a separate violation unaffected by any fair use finding.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Helmetcam Footage From World Record 275-Foot Dirt Bike Jump
This is the helmetcam footage from motocrosser Colby Raha as he sets the world record for longest jump on a v-twin dirt bike, with a very respectable 275-footer across the length of a surf pool. He then follows it up with a 90-foot vertical launch off a quarter pipe. Gnarly! Based on the landing though I think he could have gone for an even longer jump. But what do I know? I’m just a man who got nauseous watching before he even got to the jump.
A Fisherman’s Tale Developer Announces New VR Spy Title
InnerspaceVR, the studio behind popular titles like Maskmaker and A Fisherman’s Tale, just announced a brand-new VR game titled Spymaster.
In Spymaster, developer InnerspaceVR draws influence from classic spy thrillers like Mission: Impossible and Ocean’s Eleven to deliver a suave, stylish experience that will allow gamers to live out their James Bond fantasies in immersive VR. The player controls three secret agents, each with their own special skills and abilities, as they set out to stop the evil Protocore organization from using a global surveillance system to enact their nefarious plans for world domination.
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As part of the spy agency NODE, the player will have access to a special gadget to help with their mission: the C.A.S.S.E.T.T.E device that allows them to rewind time. This in turn lets them replay missions and try to devise the perfect strategy to save the day. Players can also run, climb, slide, zipline, and shoot through increasingly perilous environments on dynamic missions that include defusing bombs and poisoning criminals.
In Spymaster’s announcement press release, InnerspaceVR co-founder Balthazar Auxietre says that this latest game has been the most challenging for the studio to produce, as it required the devs to explore a new type of gameplay that combines “puzzle and action mechanics in a way that has never been done in VR,” while still building on the narrative frameworks from past projects like A Fisherman’s Tale.
There is no exact release date for Spymaster yet, but InnerspaceVR plans to launch the game in Early Access at some point in 2026 on Meta Quest and PC VR by way of SteamVR. The developer will also demo Spymaster at the upcoming GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco next month.
GOLF+ Shares Update On Mixed Reality Golf Simulation
GOLF+, shared a new video showcasing an in-development mixed reality golf simulator.
As part of last week’s GOLF+ roadmap announcement, which we covered here, CEO Ryan Engle mentioned golf simulators as a key focus for the company. Today, Engle has revealed a short video demonstrating how just such a technology would work in the real world.
Golf simulators use screens and launch monitors to allow players to shoot their shot with physical clubs and real golf balls. The velocity and path of the ball are shown on a large screen in real time, allowing the player to play courses from all over the world without ever stepping foot outdoors. Players can play in bars, clubs, at dedicated golf sim facilities, in cities, in their own homes, etc.
Golf simulators have become more popular over the last few years as technology has improved. The big challenge with golf simulators, however, lies in their relative inability to successfully replicate the sport’s short game and putting.
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Engle believes the solution to this shortcoming is a combined ecosystem of launch monitor and VR headset, and if the video provided is anything to go by, the team may be onto something. While this is a project very much in the development phase, things do look promising.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on future developments in GOLF+, and in the virtual golf space at large.
AI companies want you to stop chatting with bots and start managing them
On Thursday, Anthropic and OpenAI shipped products built around the same idea: instead of chatting with a single AI assistant, users should be managing teams of AI agents that divide up work and run in parallel. The simultaneous releases are part of a gradual shift across the industry, from AI as a conversation partner to AI as a delegated workforce, and they arrive during a week when that very concept reportedly helped wipe $285 billion off software stocks.
Whether that supervisory model works in practice remains an open question. Current AI agents still require heavy human intervention to catch errors, and no independent evaluation has confirmed that these multi-agent tools reliably outperform a single developer working alone.
Even so, the companies are going all-in on agents. Anthropic’s contribution is Claude Opus 4.6, a new version of its most capable AI model, paired with a feature called “agent teams” in Claude Code. Agent teams let developers spin up multiple AI agents that split a task into independent pieces, coordinate autonomously, and run concurrently.
This QLED TV Was Already Affordable, and Now It’s an Extra $450 Off
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TCL makes incredible budget QLED TVs. I’ve been using TCL’s QM6K since its release last year, and I frequently recommend it to anyone looking for a QLED TV for a great price. Right now, Best Buy has the 65-inch TCL QM5K (a slightly less expensive model than the one I have) for $449.99 (originally $899.99) after a 50% discount.
The QM5K is an exclusive model made for Best Buy that’s nearly identical to the QM6K, but it has fewer gaming-centric features. The QM5K caps at a refresh rate of 60Hz at the native 4K resolution—it’s still great for casual gamers, but hardcore players who want top-of-the-line specs might want shell out $80 for the next model up. opt for the QM6K.
This TV supports Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+, making streaming movies or shows with HDR formats look great. The blacks on the TV are deep because of the Mini LED technology, giving it a picture quality that belies its low price. It’s also very bright in SDR, making it great to watch broadcast TV. If you’re going to watch HDR for movies and shows, the brightness might not be as strong.
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Darktable 5.4.1 Brings Noise Profiles for Canon EOS 10D and Sony ILCE-7CR Cameras
Darktable 5.4.1 has been released today as the latest stable version in the Darktable 5.4 series of this open-source, free, and cross-platform RAW image editing software for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows systems.
The Switch 2 is getting a new Virtual Console (kind of)
In 2018, we lamented as Nintendo officially replaced the Virtual Console—its long-running line of downloadable classic games on the Wii and Wii U—with time-limited access to a set of games through a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Now, Hamster Corporation is doing what Nintendo no longer will, by offering downloadable versions of retro console games for direct individual purchase on the Switch 2.
As part of today’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Hamster announced a new Console Archives line of emulated classics available for download starting today on the Switch 2 and next week on the PlayStation 5 (sorry, Xbox and OG Switch fans). So far that lineup only includes the original PlayStation snowboarding title Cool Boarders for $12 and the NES action platformer Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos for $8, but Hamster promises more obscure games, including Doraemon and Sonic Wings Special, will be available in the future.
If the name Hamster Corporation sounds familiar, it’s because the company is behind the Arcade Archive series, which has repackaged individual arcade games for purchase and emulated play on modern consoles since 2014. That effort, which celebrated its 500th release in December, even includes some of Nintendo’s classic arcade titles, which the Switch-maker never officially released on the original Virtual Console.
This One-Day Pass Is the Best Way to Catch a Major Sporting Event Without Cable
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If you’re like most people in 2026, you don’t have cable and only miss it occasionally—mostly when there’s a specific live sporting event taking place and you need a way to catch it. What if you could get cable for a single day, then ditch it? That’s the basic idea behind Sling’s 1 Day Pass. For $5, you can get a day’s access to ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and a few more channels besides. That array will cover quite a few nationally broadcast sporting events.
Unfortunately, like most everything related to watching live television in the age of streaming, this is more complicated than I’d like. A 1 Day Pass is only available for Sling Orange, which includes just a subset of Sling’s overall offers. On top of that, Sling has always been a little bit confusing—an attribute it shares with the legacy cable companies still standing. But if you need one of the channels offered on Sling Orange, it’s theoretically a good deal.
Credit: Sling
Given it’s February, and you might be wondering whether you can use a 1 Day Pass to watch the Super Bowl without cable. Sadly, the answer is no: The big game is on NBC this year, and while Sling does offer NBC in a few markets, local channels aren’t covered by Sling Orange The same goes for the winter Olympics, which will air on NBC and USA; you’ll have to make a different plan to watch the Winter Games.
But March Madness is coming up too, and quite a few of those games are going to be available via a 1 Day Pass, so keep this service in mind if there’s a single sporting event you want to watch, especially if you notice it’s on ESPN, TBS, or TNT.
Now, could one argue that it’s easier to install an ad blocker and search the internet for a pirated stream than it is to figure out how to legally watch something? Yes. Yes one could. But a Sling 1 Day Pass can save you from that temptation (not to mention accidentally downloading malware) for just $5.