Google says total organic click volume from its search engine to websites has remained " [1]"relatively stable year-over-year " despite the introduction of AI Overviews, contradicting [2]third-party reports of dramatic traffic declines. The company reports average click quality has increased, with users less likely to immediately return to search results after clicking through to websites. Google attributes stable traffic patterns to users conducting more searches and asking longer, more complex questions since AI features launched, while AI Overviews display more links per page than traditional results.



[1] https://blog.google/products/search/ai-search-driving-more-queries-higher-quality-clicks/

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/06/10/2126217/news-sites-are-getting-crushed-by-googles-new-ai-tools

Activision will require PC players of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to [1]enable Trusted Platform Module 2.0 and Windows Secure Boot when the game launches later this year. The company begins testing these anti-cheat measures with Black Ops 6's Season 5 on Thursday without enforcement.

TPM 2.0 verifies untampered boot processes while Secure Boot ensures Windows loads only trusted software at startup. Both features perform checks during system and game startup but remain inactive during gameplay. Activision has also pursued legal action against 22 individuals who developed and sold cheats.



[1] https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-has-new-security-measures-adding-secure-boot-requirement/1100-6533739/

A Manhattan jury convicted Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm on Wednesday of [1]conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transfer business , though jurors deadlocked on charges of money laundering conspiracy and sanctions violations after three days of deliberation.

Federal prosecutors alleged Storm helped cybercriminals launder more than $1 billion through the cryptocurrency mixing platform, which launched in 2019 as a decentralized protocol designed to obscure transaction origins by pooling and redistributing funds through smart contracts.



[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-06/tornado-cash-co-founder-storm-guilty-in-crypto-laundering-case

Universal Pictures is taking a new approach to combat mass theft of its movies to teach AI systems. From a report:

> Starting in June with How to Train Your Dragon, the studio has [1]attached a legal warning at the end credits of its films stating that their titles "may not be used to train AI." It's also appeared on Jurassic World Rebirth and Bad Guys 2. "This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and other countries," the warning reads. "Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution."



[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/universal-pictures-big-tech-well-sue-if-you-steal-movies-ai-1236337712/

Google is the latest company to [1]suffer a data breach in an ongoing wave of Salesforce CRM data theft attacks conducted by the ShinyHunters extortion group. BleepingComputer:

> In June, Google warned that a threat actor they classify as 'UNC6040' is targeting companies' employees in voice phishing (vishing) social engineering attacks to breach Salesforce instances and download customer data. This data is then used to extort companies into paying a ransom to prevent the data from being leaked.

>

> In a brief update to the article last night, Google said that it too fell victim to the same attack in June after one of its Salesforce CRM instances was breached and customer data was stolen. "In June, one of Google's corporate Salesforce instances was impacted by similar UNC6040 activity described in this post. Google responded to the activity, performed an impact analysis and began mitigations," reads Google's update.



[1] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-suffers-data-breach-in-ongoing-salesforce-data-theft-attacks/

President Trump and Apple are expected to announce [1]a new $100 billion commitment by Apple to boost manufacturing in the U.S. CBS News:

> The new investment would [2]increase Apple's commitment to U.S. manufacturing to $600 billion over the next four years, according to a White House official. And it's expected to include a new "American Manufacturing Program" focused on bringing more of Apple's supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the U.S.

>

> [...] In May, the president [3]threatened to impose a 25% tariff on iPhones made outside the U.S., writing on Truth Social that he told Cook that he expects that iPhones that will be sold in the U.S. "will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else."



[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-apple-committing-100-billion-manufacturing-us/

[2] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/02/24/1142222/apple-announces-500-billion-us-investment-plan-to-hire-20000-people

[3] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/0832215/trump-tells-apple-ceo-to-avoid-manufacturing-in-india

OpenAI will provide ChatGPT access to US federal agencies [1]for $1 annually through the General Services Administration's new AI marketplace that also includes Google and Anthropic as approved vendors. The nominal pricing represents the deepest discount GSA has negotiated with software providers, surpassing previous deals with Adobe and Salesforce.

OpenAI said it will not use federal worker data to train its models and agencies face no renewal requirements. The $1 rate applies only to the ChatGPT chatbot interface, not OpenAI's API for custom software development.



[1] https://openai.com/index/providing-chatgpt-to-the-entire-us-federal-workforce/

Nvidia's chief security officer has published [1]a blog post insisting that its GPUs " [2]do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors ." From a report:

> It comes amid pressure from both sides of the Pacific, with some US lawmakers pushing Nvidia to grant the government backdoors to AI chips, while Chinese officials have [3]alleged that they already exist .

>

> David Reber Jr.'s post seems pointedly directed at US lawmakers. In May a bipartisan group introduced the Chip Security Act, a bill that would require Nvidia and other manufacturers to include tracking technology to identify when chips are illegally transported internationally, and leaves the door open for further security measures including remote kill switches. While Nvidia is expecting to be granted permits to once again sell certain AI chips in China, its most powerful hardware is still under strict US export controls there and elsewhere.



[1] https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/no-backdoors-no-kill-switches-no-spyware/

[2] https://www.theverge.com/news/719697/nvidia-ai-gpu-chips-denies-backdoors-kill-switches-spyware

[3] https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/31/157224/china-claims-nvidia-built-backdoor-into-h20-chip-designed-for-chinese-market

The Trump administration has reportedly directed NASA to [1]draw up plans to shut down its Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite missions , which provide vital climate and agricultural data for scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need [2]detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. As NPR reports, the satellites are "the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases." From the report:

> It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that "the data are of exceptionally high quality" and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years.

>

> Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission.

>

> NASA employees who work on the two missions are making what the agency calls Phase F plans for both carbon-monitoring missions, according to David Crisp, a longtime NASA scientist who designed the instruments and managed the missions until he retired in 2022. Phase F plans lay out options for terminating NASA missions.

The OCO missions would lose funding under the Trump Administration's budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins Oct. 1 but has yet to pass. "Presidential budget proposals are wish lists that often bear little resemblance to final congressional budgets," notes NPR. "The Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions have already received funding from Congress through the end of the 2025 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30."

"Draft budgets that Congress is currently considering for next year keep NASA funding basically flat. But it's not clear whether these specific missions will receive funding again, or if Congress will pass a budget before current funding expires on Sept. 30."



[1] https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/02/23/207202/nasas-orbiting-carbon-observatory-set-for-launch-tomorrow

[2] https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/02/23/207202/nasas-orbiting-carbon-observatory-set-for-launch-tomorrow

A San Francisco jury ruled that Meta violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act by [1]collecting sensitive data from users of the Flo period-tracking app without consent . "The plaintiff's lawyers who sued Meta are calling this a 'landmark' victory -- the tech company contends that the jury got it all wrong," reports SFGATE. From the report:

> The case goes back to 2021, when eight women sued Flo and a group of other tech companies, including Google and Facebook, now known as Meta. The stakes were extremely personal. Flo asked users about their sex lives, mental health and diets, and guided them through menstruation and pregnancy. Then, the women alleged, Flo shared pieces of that data with other companies. The claims were largely based on a 2019 [2]Wall Street Journal story and a 2021 Federal Trade Commission [3]investigation . Google, Flo and the analytics company Flurry, which was also part of the lawsuit, reached settlements with the plaintiffs, as is common in class action lawsuits about tech privacy. But Meta stuck it out through the entire trial and lost.

>

> The case against Meta focused on its Facebook software development kit, which Flo added to its app and which is generally used for analytics and advertising services. The women alleged that between June 2016 and February 2019, Flo sent Facebook, through that kit, various records of "Custom App Events" -- such as a user clicking a particular button in the "wanting to get pregnant" section of the app. Their complaint also pointed to Facebook's terms for its business tools, which said the company used so-called "event data" to personalize ads and content.

>

> In a 2022 [4]filing (PDF), the tech giant admitted that Flo used Facebook's kit during this period and that the app sent data connected to "App Events." But Meta denied receiving intimate information about users' health. Nonetheless, the jury [5]ruled (PDF) against Meta. Along with the eavesdropping decision, the group determined that Flo's users had a reasonable expectation they weren't being overheard or recorded, as well as ruling that Meta didn't have consent to eavesdrop or record. The unanimous verdict was that the massive company violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act.

The jury's ruling could impact over 3.7 million U.S. users who registered between November 2016 and February 2019, with updates to be shared via email and a [6]case website . The exact compensation from the trial or potential settlements remains uncertain.



[1] https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/meta-eavesdropped-period-tracker-app-20803399.php

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-give-apps-sensitive-personal-information-then-they-tell-facebook-11550851636

[3] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/01/developer-popular-womens-fertility-tracking-app-settles-ftc-allegations-it-misled-consumers-about

[4] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.372884/gov.uscourts.cand.372884.173.0.pdf

[5] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.372884/gov.uscourts.cand.372884.756.0_2.pdf

[6] https://periodtrackerdataprivacylitigation.com/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times:

> China's automakers have teamed up with software companies togo global with their driverless cars, which are poised to claim a big share of a growing market as Western manufacturers are still preparing to compete. The industry in China is expanding despite tariffs imposed last year by the European Union on electric cars, and despite some worries in Europe about the security implications of relying on Chinese suppliers. Baidu, one of China's biggest software companies, said on Monday that it would supply Lyft, an American ride-hailing service, [1]with self-driving cars assembled by Jiangling Motors of China (source paywalled; [2]alternative source ). Lyft is expected to begin operating them next year in Germany and Britain, subject to regulatory approval, the companies said.

>

> The announcement comes three months after Uber and Momenta, a Chinese autonomous driving company, [3]announced their own plans to begin offering self-driving cars in an unspecified European city early next year. Momenta will soon provide assisted driving technology to the Chinese company IM Motors for its cars sold in Britain. While Momenta has not specified the model that Uber will be using, it has already signaled it will choose a Chinese model. In China, "the pace of development and the pressure to deliver at scale push companies to improve quickly," said Gerhard Steiger, the chairman of Momenta Europe. China's state-controlled banking system has been lending money at low interest rates to the country's electric car industry in a bid for global leadership. [...]

>

> Expanding robotaxi services to new cities, not to mention new countries, is not easy. While the individual cars do not have drivers, they typically require one controller for every several cars to handle difficulties and answer questions from users. And the cars often need to be specially programmed for traffic conditions unique to each city. Lyft and Baidu nonetheless said that they had plans for "the fleet scaling to thousands of vehicles across Europe in the following years."



[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/business/lyft-baidu-driverless-cars-europe.html

[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/04/lyft-and-chinas-baidu-look-to-bring-robotaxis-to-europe-next-year/

[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/05/02/2113240/uber-inks-robotaxi-deal-with-chinese-startup-momenta

"Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched a crypto billionaire and five other people to the final frontier on Sunday," [1]reports Space.com :

> The mission — known as NS-34, because it was the 34th overall flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle — lifted off from the company's West Texas spaceport at 8:43 a.m. EDT (1243 GMT; 7:43 a.m. local time in West Texas).

>

> The highest-profile NS-34 passenger was Justin Sun, a 34-year-old billionaire who founded the blockchain platform Tron. In June 2021, Sun won an auction for a seat aboard the first-ever crewed flight of New Shepard, plunking down $28 million. [Sun was unable to take that flight due to a scheduling conflict, but Blue Origin says "the proceeds from the $28 million bid benefitted 19 space-focused charities"...] The people flying with Sun on Sunday were Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal, an Indian-born American real estate investor and adventurer; Turkish businessman and photographer Gökhan Erdem; Deborah Martorell, a journalist and meteorologist from Puerto Rico; Englishman Lionel Pitchford, who has run an orphanage in Nepal for three decades; and American entrepreneur James (J.D.) Russell... All six passengers were spaceflight rookies except Russell, who flew on Blue Origin's NS-28 mission in November 2024.

>

> NS-34 was the 14th human spaceflight to date for New Shepard, which consists of a rocket topped by a crew capsule. Both of these elements are reusable; the rocket comes back to Earth for a vertical, powered touchdown like those performed by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, and the capsule lands softly under parachutes. Each New Shepard flight lasts 10 to 12 minutes from liftoff to capsule touchdown.

"New Shepard has now flown 75 people into space," Blue Origin [2]said in a statement , "including five people who have flown twice."



[1] https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/blue-origin-launch-crypto-billionaire-justin-sun-launch-suborbital-space-ns-34

[2] https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-34-mission

Disney "cloned" Dwayne Johnson when filming a live-action Moana , [1]reports the Wall Street Journal , using an AI process that they were ultimately afraid to use:

> Under the plan they devised, Johnson's similarly buff cousin Tanoai Reed — who is 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds — would fill in as a body double for a small number of shots. Disney would work with AI company Metaphysic to create deepfakes of Johnson's face that could be layered on top of Reed's performance in the footage — a "digital double" that effectively allowed Johnson to be in two places at once... Johnson approved the plan, but the use of a new technology had Disney attorneys hammering out details over how it could be deployed, what security precautions would protect the data and a host of other concerns. They also worried that the studio ultimately couldn't claim ownership over every element of the film if AI generated parts of it, people involved in the negotiations said. Disney and Metaphysic spent 18 months negotiating on and off over the terms of the contract and work on the digital double. But none of the footage will be in the final film when it's released next summer...

>

> Interviews with more than 20 current and former employees and partners present an entertainment giant torn between the inevitability of AI's advance and concerns about how to use it. Progress has at times been slowed by bureaucracy and hand-wringing over the company's social contract with its fans, not to mention its legal contract with unions representing actors, writers and other creative partners... For Disney, protecting its characters and stories while also embracing new AI technology is key. "We have been around for 100 years and we intend to be around for the next 100 years," said the company's legal chief, Horacio Gutierrez, in an interview. "AI will be transformative, but it doesn't need to be lawless...." [As recently as June, a Disney/Comcast Universal lawsuit had argued that Midjourney "is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism."]

>

> Concerns about bad publicity were a big reason that Disney scrapped a plan to use AI in Tron: Ares — a movie set for release in October about an AI-generated soldier entering the real world. Since the movie is about artificial intelligence, executives pitched the idea of actually incorporating AI into one of the characters... as a buzzy marketing strategy, according to people familiar with the matter. A writer would provide context on the animated character — a sidekick to Jeff Bridges' lead role named Bit — to a generative AI program. Then on screen, the AI program, voiced by an actor, would respond to questions as Bit as cameras rolled. But with negotiations with unions representing writers and actors over contracts happening at the same time, Disney dismissed the idea, and executives internally were told that the company couldn't risk the bad publicity, the people said...

>

> Disney's own history speaks to how studios have navigated technological crossroads before. When Disney hired Pixar to produce a handful of graphic images for its 1989 hit The Little Mermaid , executives kept the incorporation a secret, fearing backlash from fans if they learned that not every frame of the animated film had been hand-drawn. Such knowledge, executives feared, might "take away the magic."

Disney invested $1.5 billion in Fortnite creator Epic Games, acccording to the article, and is planning a world in Fortnite where gamers can interact with Marvel superheroes and creatures from Avatar . But "an experiment to allow gamers to interact with an AI-generated Darth Vader was fraught. Within minutes of launching the AI bot, gamers had figured out a way to make it curse in James Earl Jones's signature baritone." (Though Epic patched the workaround within 30 minutes.)

But the article spells out another concern for Disney executives. "If a Fortnite gamer creates a Darth Vader and Spider-Man dance that goes viral on YouTube, who owns that dance?



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/is-it-still-disney-magic-if-it-s-ai/ar-AA1JQfAr

Napster's latest [1]AI pivot "is the latest in a series of attempts by various owners to ride its brand cachet during emerging tech waves," [2] Fast Company reported in July .

> In March, it [3]sold for $207 million to Infinite Reality, an immersive digital media and e-commerce company, which also rebranded as Napster last month. Since 2020, other owners have included a British VR music startup (to create VR concerts) and two crypto-focused companies that bought it to anchor a Web3 music platform. Napster's launch follows a growing number of attempts to drive AI adoption beyond smartphones and laptops.

And tonight the Washington Post re-visited the legacy of Napster's original mp3-sharing model, arguing Napster " [4]inspired successive generations of entrepreneurs to risk flouting the law so they could grow enough to get the laws changed to suit them, including Airbnb and Uber."

> "Napster to me embodies the idea that it is better to seek forgiveness than permission," said Mark Lemley, director of Stanford Law School's Program in Law, Science & Technology. "It didn't work out well for Napster or for many of the others who got sued, but it worked out very well for everyone else — users, and eventually the content industry, too, which is making record profits...." [Napster co-founder Sean] Parker later advised Spotify, and Napster marketing chief [5]Oliver Schusser is now Apple's vice president for music.

>

> Although many users saw Napster as an extension of rock-and-roll rebellion, that was not the company's real plan. First Fanning's majority-owning uncle, and then venture capital firm Hummer Winblad, wanted the start-up to leverage its knowledge of individual music consumers to make lucrative deals with the labels, according to internal documents this reporter found in researching a [6]book on Napster . They warned that if no agreement were reached and Napster failed, more decentralized pirate services would take the audience and offer the labels nothing.

>

> But settlement talks failed. The litigation blitz also took down a Napster competitor called Scour, which [7]a young Travis Kalanick had joined shortly after its founding. Kalanick later created Uber, dedicated to overthrowing taxi regulations.

The article concludes that "Now it is Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google, among the largest companies in the world, bankrolling the consumption of all media.

"They, too, have absorbed Napster's lessons in realpolitik, namely to build it first and hope the regulators will either yield or catch up."



[1] https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/08/1927222/music-pioneer-napster-tries-again-this-time-with-ai-chatbots

[2] https://www.fastcompany.com/91362947/napster-is-back-betting-big-on-ai

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/25/napster-pioneered-music-sharing-25-years-ago-bought-for-207-million-.html

[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/08/02/napster-reunion-silicon-valley/

[5] https://variety.com/exec/oliver-schusser/

[6] https://www.amazon.com/All-Rave-Shawn-Fannings-Napster-ebook/dp/B0052YWXGS/

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/why-travis-kalanick-didnt-survive-uber/2017/06/21/8ecb98d6-51d3-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html

NBC News reports that in the U.S., many recent graduates looking to enter the labor force " [1]are painting a dire picture of their job search ."

> NBC News asked people who recently finished technical school, college or graduate school how their job application process was going, and in more than 100 responses, the graduates described months spent searching for a job, hundreds of applications and zero responses from employers — even with degrees once thought to be in high demand, like computer science or engineering.

>

> Some said they struggled to get an hourly retail position or are making salaries well below what they had been expecting in fields they hadn't planned to work in. "It was very frustrating," said Jensen Kornfeind, who graduated this spring from Temple University with a degree in international trade. "Out of 70-plus job applications, I had three job interviews, and out of those three, I got ghosted from two of them."

>

> The national economic data backs up their experience. The unemployment rate among recent graduates has been increasing this year to an average of 5.3%, compared to around 4% for the labor force as a whole, making it one of the toughest job markets for recent graduates since 2015, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Friday. "Recent college graduates are on the margin of the labor market, and so they're the first to feel when the labor market slows and hiring slows," said Jaison Abel, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

>

> Across the economy, hiring in recent months has ground to its slowest pace since the start of the pandemic, with employers adding just 73,000 jobs in July, according to data released Friday... Tech workers have been some of the hardest hit in a slowing job market, with more than 400 employers including Meta, Intel and Cisco announcing more than 130,000 jobs cut in 2025, according to [2]tech job site TrueUp .

The article cites an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab who believes early adoption of AI "is also likely driving some of the cuts and leading employers to rethink hiring plans in anticipation of AI's future role." So besides federal policy changes, the article blames "the emergence of AI, which some companies have said they are using to replace certain entry-level jobs, like those in customer support or basic software development."

Seven months after graduating, one CS major told NBC News he'd applied for 100 jobs, and got one job offer — for the 4 a.m. shift at Starbucks.



[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/job-market-report-college-student-graduates-ai-trump-tariffs-rcna221693

[2] https://www.trueup.io/layoffs

"Hyundai sold 79,543 vehicles in the U.S. last month," [1]reports the EV news site Electrek — Hyundai's best July ever, and 15% higher than last year.

"The growth was mainly driven by electrified vehicles, including EVs and hybrids..."

> Hyundai said that electrified vehicle sales "reached new heights," after climbing 50% compared to July 2024. Electrified vehicles accounted for nearly a third (32%) of Hyundai's retail sales in July 2025, with several popular nameplates setting new all-time monthly sales records, including the new IONIQ 5.

>

> Hyundai IONIQ 5 sales surged 71% in July with 5,818 units sold. Through the first seven months of 2025, Hyundai has now sold nearly 25,000 IONIQ 5 models in the US. Hyundai's electric SUV remains one of the top-selling EVs in the US, boasting a long driving range, ultra-fast charging capabilities, advanced technology, and a stylish design. After upgrading it for the 2025 model year, the IONIQ 5 now features a range of up to 318 miles, an upgraded infotainment system, and a built-in NACS port, allowing you to charge at Tesla Superchargers... Hyundai is also offering a complimentary ChargePoint L2 home EV charger with the purchase or lease of a new 2025 IONIQ 5 or 2026 IONIQ 9.



[1] https://electrek.co/2025/08/01/hyundai-ioniq-5-shatters-us-sales-record-as-ev-push-heats-up/

Started in 1984, it's been described as the internet's longest-running contest. And yesterday 2025's International Obfuscated C Code Contest concluded — with [1]23 new winners announced in a [2]special four-and-a-half-hour livestreamed ceremony !

Programmers submitted their funniest programs showcasing C's unusual/obscure subtleties while having some fun. (And demonstrating the importance of clarity and style by setting some very bad examples...) Among this year's winners were an [3]OpenRISC 32-bit CPU emulator , a virtual machine capable of [4]running Doom , and some kind of [5]salmon recipe that makes clever use of C's [6]U"string" literal prefix ...

But yes, every entry's source code is ridiculously obfuscated. ("Before you set off on your adventure to decode this program's logic, make sure you have enough food, ammo, clothes, oxen, and programming supplies," read [7]the judge's remarks on the winner of this year's "diabolical logistics" prize. "You'll be driving for 2170 miles through a wild wilderness inspired by Oregon Trail...") And one entrant also struggled mightily in adapting a [8]rough port of their program's old Atari 2600 version , but was never gonna give it up...

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [9]achowe for bringing the news (who has submitted winning entries [10]in four different decades , starting in 1991 and continuing through 2024)...

Including a 2004 award for [11]the best abuse of the contest's guidelines . ("We are not exactly sure how many organisations will be upset with this entry, but we are considering starting an IOCCC standards body just to reign in the likes of Mr Howe....")



[1] https://www.ioccc.org/news.html

[2] https://www.youtube.com/live/UDzGwTalVAc?feature=shared

[3] https://www.ioccc.org/2024/macke/index.html

[4] https://www.ioccc.org/2024/kurdyukov3/index.html

[5] https://www.ioccc.org/2024/cable2/index.html

[6] https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/string_literal.html

[7] https://www.ioccc.org/2024/ferguson1/index.html

[8] https://www.ioccc.org/2024/weaver/index.html

[9] https://www.slashdot.org/~achowe

[10] https://www.ioccc.org/authors.html#Anthony_C_Howe

[11] https://www.ioccc.org/2004/hibachi/index.html

Slashdot reader [1]ffkom writes:

> The air around you mostly consists of nitrogen [ [2]78% ]. And in that air exist happy little monogamous pairs of two nitrogen atoms per molecule, also known as N2. Researchers from the University of Giessen, Germany, recently [3]managed to synthesize N6 molecules , "the first, to our knowledge, experimentally realized neutral molecular nitrogen allotrope beyond N2 that exhibits unexpected stability."

>

> And these appear to be pretty angry little molecules, as they detonate at more than twice the energy density than good old TNT:

>

> A kiloton of N6 is 1.19×10**7mol, which can release an energy of 2.20×109kcal (9.21terajoules) based on the enthalpy. Considering that the standard kiloton TNT equivalent is 4.184terajoules, N6 can release 2.2 times the energy of TNT of the same weight. On the basis of the [4]documented TNT equivalent based on weight for HMX (1.15) and RDX (1.15), N6 can release 1.9 times the energy of HMX or RDX with the same weight.

>

> In interviews the researchers contemplated the [5]possibility of using N6 as rocket fuel , given its superior energy density and that its reaction product is just N2, so basically air, but no smoke, no CO2 or other potentially harmful substances.



[1] https://slashdot.org/~ffkom

[2] https://climatekids.nasa.gov/10-things-air/

[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09032-9

[4] https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jcp/article-abstract/87/10/5968/93966/Quadratic-configuration-interaction-A-general?redirectedFrom=fulltext

[5] https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/06/27/perfect-rocket-fuel-no-fires-no-chemicals-just-energy-49569

IBM's legendary Model M keyboard was sturdy and solid. But "What would happen if you took the classic layout and look of the Model M [1]and rebuilt it with modern mechanical guts ?" asks long-time Slashdot reader [2]uninet . Writing for the long-running tech blog Open for Business , they review a new wireless keyboard from Vortex that was clearly inspired by the Model M:

> The result is a unique keyboard with one foot in two different decades... Let's call it the Vortex M for simplicity's sake.

>

> I first became aware of it on a Facebook ad and was immediately fascinated. It looked so close to the original Model M, I wondered if someone else had gotten access to an original mold and was trying [3]Unicomp's game . No, they've just managed to copy the aesthetic to a nearly uncanny level... The Vortex M eschews the normal eye candy we expect on modern keyboards and attempts the closest duplication of IBM's staid early PC design sensibility I can imagine. Off-white, rugged and absolutely no frills of lighting. If you're looking for cutesy, forget it.

>

> The keyboard's casing has the same highly textured plastic that looks and feels instantly familiar to anyone who spent too many hours interacting with early PCs. Model M to a tee. The keycaps likewise look the part... The Vortex M looks like a Model M. Its build quality feels like a Model M. But one key press and it becomes clear this is a different beast. Underneath the Model M-styled skin, Vortex's keyboard is a very modern design — everything the Unicomp is not. For our test, Vortex provided a keyboard with Cherry MX Blues, the classic clicky option the company and I both thought would best match up against Model M's buckling springs...

>

> Vortex's product configurator offers a variety of common and less common Cherry and Gateron options, if you want to get a different sort of feel in lieu of the clicky I tested. This is possible with an MX switch-style keyboard and impossible with buckling springs with their one option of bold clicky . Not only can this be done when ordering, but also later on, thanks to hot swap switches that allow changes without soldering. Following the modern premium board theme, Vortex paired high end switches with a gasket mount and foam padding. The combination provides a solid feeling, sound dampened typing experience. Ironically, though, for a keyboard that apes the design of perhaps the loudest keyboard on the market today, the Vortex M is (relatively) quiet even with the clicky Blues on tap...

The review's highlights:

"The keyboard is exquisitely crafted to look like the IBM original... "

"The Vortex M supports connecting to three different devices via Bluetooth, along with a 2.4 GHz receiver and a USB Type-C wired connection. "

There's a full complement of media hot keys — "including an emoji key ala recent Macs. "

"For repetitive tasks, the keyboard is programmable with macros... And unlike Unicomp's boards, Vortex's can switch between PC and Mac layouts with the press of a hotkey."

The keyboard uses AA batteries rather than having a built-in rechargeable battery

The keyboard ultimately gave the reviewer some cognitive dissonance. "How am I typing on a Model M and not making a racket...?"

"Pricing varies based on options, but as tested, it clocked in at $154. That's the low end of the 'premium' market and this is an exceptional board for that price."



[1] https://reviews.ofb.biz/sa1337

[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~uninet

[3] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/08/05/29/1334258/review-of-the-model-m-inspired-unicomp-customizer-keyboard

" [1]Did Craigslist drive the downfall of print classifieds ?" That's the question asked in a new article from the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies:

> "I've always wondered about that," Newmark said in a Zoom interview July 1. "I think it had an effect." But portraying him and the list as torpedoing an otherwise great business model is way overblown, he still believes. Citing [2]an influential essay by Thomas Baekdal , Newmark contends that the root of newspapers' trouble was the loss of readers. "TV hit hard. ... (And) l'm like the folks on 'CSI,' I follow the evidence. That goes back at least to the '60s."

>

> Bad in itself, the loss also took away newspapers' dominant share of local audiences and ability to charge premium classified ad rates. The slide in circulation looks even worse, Baekdal pointed out, when compared to continued increases in the number of households over the years.

>

> Still, Craigslist came to symbolize the shift. Dozens of other vertical digital sites cropped up, before and after, all offering a deadly competitive pairing of an effective and much cheaper service than newspaper classifieds. Even if Craigslist was just one of many, though, it was arguably Newmark who put a face on the massive disruption... By the early 2000s, newspaper executives had a dawning awareness of the business challenge from Craigslist and similar sites. They took minimal action to meet it...

>

> The biggest response was that three big companies — Knight-Ridder, Tribune and Gannett — bought a copycat of Monster called CareerBuilder... By the time newspapers acted, online classifieds had a full head of steam... By 2010, 70% of the newspaper industry's print classified business was gone. Reliable statistics are no longer kept, but the trend continued over the last 15 years... Newspapers continue to do well only with paid obituaries and legal notices, though the latter is now also under threat by digital startups.

The article cites a 2019 analysis from Peter Zollman, whose AIM Group consultancy has followed the classified business for 25 years. "Craigslist has often been blamed for killing newspapers, but that's a gross canard. It just isn't true."

> American newspapers stumbled while several well-managed counterparts in places like Scandinavia found ways to prosper, he argued.



[1] https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/did-craigslist-kill-newspapers-poynter-50/

[2] https://baekdal.com/monetization/the-updated-and-scary-circulation-and-revenue-figures-for-newspapers/