Last August a Microsoft security update broke dual-booting Windows 11 and Linux systems, [1]remembers the blog Neowin . Distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Zorin OS, and Puppy Linux were all affected, and "a couple of days later, Microsoft provided a [2]slightly lengthy workaround that involved tweaking around with policies and the Registry in order to fix the problem."

The update "was meant to [3]address a GRUB bootloader vulnerability that allowed malicious actors to bypass Secure Boot's safety mechanisms," [4]notes the It's FOSS blog . "Luckily, there's now a proper fix for this, as Microsoft has [5]quietly released a new patch on May 13, 2025, addressing the issue nine months after it was first reported... Meanwhile, many dual-boot users were left with borked setups, having to use workarounds or disable Secure Boot altogether."



[1] https://www.neowin.net/news/linux-windows-11-dual-boot-to-finally-play-well-as-microsoft-fixes-nine-month-old-bug/

[2] https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-shares-more-info-on-fixing-broken-dual-boot-after-august-patch-tuesday-updates/

[3] https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/en-US/advisory/CVE-2022-2601

[4] https://news.itsfoss.com/microsoft-fixes-linux-dual-boot/

[5] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-server-2022

It's a nonprofit that's provide hosting for the Linux Foundation, the Apache Software Foundation, Drupal, Firefox, and 160 other projects — delivering nearly 430 terabytes of information every month. (It's currently hosting Debian, Fedora, and Gentoo Linux.) But [1]hosting only provides about 20% of its income , with the rest coming from [2]individual and [3]corporate donors (including Google and IBM). "Over the past several years, we have been operating at a deficit due to a decline in corporate donations," the Open Source Lab's director [4]announced in late April .

It's part of the CS/electrical engineering department at Oregon State University, and while the department "has generously filled this gap, recent changes in university funding makes our current funding model no longer sustainable. Unless we secure $250,000 in committed funds, the OSL will shut down later this year."

But "Thankfully, the call for support worked, paving the way for the OSU Open Source Lab to look ahead, into what the future holds for them," [5]reports the blog It's FOSS .

"Following our OSL Future post, the community response has been incredible!" [6]posted director Lance Albertson . "Thanks to your amazing support, our team is funded for the next year. This is a huge relief and lets us focus on building a truly self-sustaining OSL."

> To get there, we're tackling two big interconnected goals:

>

> 1. Finding a new, cost-effective physical home for our core infrastructure, ideally with more modern hardware.

> 2. Securing multi-year funding commitments to cover all our operations, including potential new infrastructure costs and hardware refreshes.

>

>

> Our current data center is over 20 years old and needs to be replaced soon. With Oregon State University evaluating the future of this facility, it's very likely we'll need to relocate in the near future. While migrating to the [7]State of Oregon's data center is one option, it comes with significant new costs. This makes finding free or very low-cost hosting (ideally between Eugene and Portland for ~13-20 racks) a huge opportunity for our long-term sustainability. More power-efficient hardware would also help us shrink our footprint.

>

> Speaking of hardware, refreshing some of our older gear during a move would be a game-changer. We don't need brand new, but even a few-generations-old refurbished systems would boost performance and efficiency. (Huge thanks to the [8]Yocto Project and [9]Intel for a recent hardware donation that showed just how impactful this is!) The dream? A data center partner donating space and cycled-out hardware. Our overall infrastructure strategy is flexible. We're enhancing our OpenStack/Ceph platforms and exploring public cloud credits and other donated compute capacity. But whatever the resource, it needs to fit our goals and come with multi-year commitments for stability. And, a physical space still offers unique value, especially the invaluable hands-on data center experience for our students....

>

> [O]ur big focus this next year is locking in ongoing support — think annualized pledges, different kinds of regular income, and other recurring help. This is vital, especially with potential new data center costs and hardware needs. Getting this right means we can stop worrying about short-term funding and plan for the future: investing in our tech and people, growing our awesome student programs, and serving the FOSS community. We're looking for partners, big and small, who get why foundational open source infrastructure matters and want to help us build this sustainable future together.

The It's FOSS blog adds that "With these prerequisites in place, the OSUOSL intends to expand their [10]student program , strengthen their [11]managed services portfolio for open source projects, introduce modern tooling like Kubernetes and Terraform, and encourage more community volunteers to actively contribute."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [12]I'm just joshin for suggesting the story.



[1] https://osuosl.org/donate/faq/#how-are-you-associated-with-oregon-state-university

[2] https://osuosl.org/donate/

[3] https://osuosl.org/sponsors/

[4] https://osuosl.org/blog/osl-future/

[5] https://news.itsfoss.com/osu-open-source-lab-future/

[6] https://osuosl.org/blog/osl-future-update/?ref=news.itsfoss.com

[7] https://www.oregon.gov/eis/data-center-services/pages/default.aspx

[8] https://www.yoctoproject.org/

[9] https://intel.com/

[10] https://osuosl.org/students/

[11] https://osuosl.org/services/

[12] https://slashdot.org/~I'm+just+joshin

The Prossimo project (funded by the nonprofit Internet Security Research Group) seeks to "move the Internet's security-sensitive software infrastructure to memory safe code." Two years ago the Prossimo project made an announcement: they'd begun work on rav1d, a safer high performance AV1 decoder written in Rust, [1]according to a new update :

> We partnered with [2]Immunant to do the engineering work. By September of 2024 rav1d was basically complete and we [3]learned a lot during the process. Today rav1d works well — it passes all the same tests as the dav1d decoder it is based on, which is written in C. It's possible to build and run Chromium with it.

>

> There's just one problem — it's not quite as fast as the C version...

>

> Our Rust-based rav1d decoder is currently about 5% slower than the C-based dav1d decoder (the exact amount differs a bit depending on the benchmark, input, and platform). This is enough of a difference to be a problem for potential adopters, and, frankly, it just bothers us. The development team worked hard to get it to performance parity. We brought in a couple of other contractors who have experience with optimizing things like this. We [4]wrote about the optimization work we did . However, we were still unable to get to performance parity and, to be frank again, we aren't really sure what to do next.

>

> After racking our brains for options, we decided to [5]offer a bounty pool of $20,000 for getting rav1d to performance parity with dav1d. Hopefully folks out there can help get rav1d performance advanced to where it needs to be, and ideally we and the Rust community will also learn something about how Rust performance stacks up against C.

This drew a snarky response from FFmpeg, the framework that powers audio and video processing for everyone from VLC to Twitch. "Rust is so good you can get paid $20k to make it as fast as C," they [6]posted to their 68,300 followers on X.com .

Thanks to [7]the It's FOSS blog for spotting the announcement.



[1] https://www.memorysafety.org/blog/rav1d-perf-bounty/

[2] https://immunant.com/

[3] https://www.memorysafety.org/blog/porting-c-to-rust-for-av1/

[4] https://www.memorysafety.org/blog/rav1d-performance-optimization/

[5] https://www.memorysafety.org/rav1d-bounty-official-rules/

[6] https://x.com/FFmpeg/status/1922814549033447800

[7] https://news.itsfoss.com/ffmpeg-swipe-at-rust/

Amazon's AWS Labs has created [1]LLRT an experimental, lightweight JavaScript runtime designed to address the growing demand for fast and efficient serverless applications.

Slashdot reader [2]BitterEpic wants to know what you think of it:

> Traditional JavaScript runtimes like Node.js rely on garbage collection, which can introduce unpredictable pauses and slow down performance, especially during cold starts in serverless environments like AWS Lambda. [3]LLRT 's manual memory management, courtesy of Rust, eliminates this issue, leading to smoother, more predictable performance. LLRT also has a runtime under 2MB, a huge reduction compared to the 100MB+ typically required by Node.js. This lightweight design means lower memory usage, better scalability, and reduced operational costs. Without the overhead of garbage collection, LLRT has faster cold start times and can initialize in milliseconds—perfect for latency-sensitive applications where every millisecond counts.

>

> For JavaScript developers, LLRT offers the best of both worlds: rapid development with JavaScript's flexibility, combined with Rust's performance. This means faster, more scalable applications without the usual memory bloat and cold start issues. Still in beta, LLRT promises to be a major step forward for serverless JavaScript applications. By combining Rust's performance with JavaScript's flexibility, it opens new possibilities for building high-performance, low-latency applications. If it continues to evolve, LLRT could become a core offering in AWS Lambda, potentially changing how we approach serverless JavaScript development.

>

> Would you consider Javascript as the core of your future workflow? Or maybe you would prefer to go lower level with [4]quckjs ?



[1] https://github.com/awslabs/llrt

[2] https://slashdot.org/~BitterEpic

[3] https://github.com/awslabs/llrt

[4] https://bellard.org/quickjs/

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from Ars Technica :

> Nextcloud, a host-your-own cloud platform that wants to help you "regain control over your data," has had to tell its Android-using customers for months now that they cannot upload files from their phone to their own servers. Months of emails and explanations to Google's Play Store representatives have yielded no changes, Nextcloud [2].

>

> That blog post — and media coverage of it — seem to have moved the needle. In an update to the post, Nextcloud wrote that as of May 15, Google has offered to restore full file access permissions. "We are preparing a test release first (expected tonight) and a final update with all functionality restored. If no issues occur, the update will hopefully be out early next week," the Nextcloud team wrote....

>

> [Nextcloud] [3]told The Register that it had more than 800,000 Android users. The company's blog post goes further than pinpointing technical and support hurdles. "It is a clear example of Big Tech gatekeeping smaller software vendors, making the products of their competitors worse or unable to provide the same services as the giants themselves sell," Nextcloud's post states. "Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door." Nextcloud is one of the leaders of [4]an antitrust-minded movement against Microsoft's various integrated apps and services, having filed a complaint against the firm in 2021.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/nextcloud-accuses-google-of-big-tech-gatekeeping-over-android-app-permissions/

[2] https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-android-file-upload-issue-google/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/13/nextcloud_play_store_complaint/

[4] https://antitrust.nextcloud.com/

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from CRN :

> CPU-tracking firm Mercury Research reported on Thursday that Intel's x86 CPU market share grew 0.3 points sequentially to 75.6 percent against AMD's 24.4 percent in the first quarter. However, AMD managed to increase its market share by 3.6 points year over year. These figures only captured the server, laptop and desktop CPU segments. When including IoT and semicustom products, AMD grew its x86 market share sequentially by 1.5 points and year over year by 0.9 points to 27.1 percent against Intel's 72.9 percent... AMD managed to gain ground on Intel in the desktop and server segments sequentially and year over year. But it was in the laptop segment where Intel eked out a sequential share gain, even though rival AMD ended up finishing the first quarter with a higher share of shipments than what it had a year ago...

>

> While AMD mostly came out on top in the first quarter, [Mercury Research President Dean] McCarron said ARM's estimated CPU share against x86 products [2]crossed into the double digits for the first time, growing 2.3 points sequentially to 11.9 percent. This was mainly due to a "surge" of Nvidia's Grace CPUs for servers and a large increase of Arm CPU shipments for Chromebooks.

Meanwhile, PC Gamer reports that ARM's share of the PC processor market " [3]grew to 13.6% in the first quarter of 2025 from 10.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024." And they note the still-only-rumors that an Arm-based chip from AMD will be available as soon next year.

> [I]f one of the two big players in x86 does release a mainstream Arm chip for the PC, that will very significant. If it comes at about the same time as Nvidia's rumoured Arm chip for the PC, well, momentum really will be building and questioning x86's dominance will be wholly justified.



[1] https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/2025/intel-struggles-to-reverse-amd-s-share-gains-in-x86-cpu-market

[2] https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/2025/surge-in-nvidia-grace-cpus-contributes-to-record-arm-market-share-estimate

[3] https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/processors/rumours-of-an-arm-based-cpu-from-amd-just-wont-go-away-as-analysts-reckon-arm-is-eating-into-the-pc-processor-market/

A new YouTube tool will let advertisers use Google's Gemini AI model to target ads to viewers when they're most engaged, [1]reports CNBC :

> Peak Points has the potential to enable more impressions and a higher click-through rate on YouTube, a primary metric that determines how creators earn money on the video platform... Peak Points is currently in a pilot program and will be rolling out over the rest of the year.

The product "aims to benefit advertisers by using a tactic that aims to grab users' attention right when they're most invested in the content," [2]reports TechCrunch :

> This approach appears to be similar to a strategy called [3]emotion-based targeting , where advertisers place ads that align with the emotions evoked by the video. It's believed that when viewers experience heightened emotional states, it leads to better recall of the ads. However, viewers may find these interruptions frustrating, especially when they're deeply engaged in the emotional arc of a video and want the ad to be over quickly to resume watching.

>

> In related news, YouTube announced another ad format that may be more appealing to users. The platform debuted a shoppable product feed where users can browse and purchase items during an ad.



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/14/youtube-gemini-ai-feature-will-target-ads-when-viewers-most-engaged.html

[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/14/youtube-viewers-will-start-seeing-ads-after-peak-moments-in-videos/

[3] https://www.wurl.com/success-story/monks-use-of-emotion-targeting-boosted-engagement-and-out-performed-other-campaign-strategies/

"The altruistic OpenAI is gone, if it ever existed," [1]argues a new article in the Atlantic , based on interviews with more than 90 current and former employees, including executives. It notes that shortly before Altman's ouster (and rehiring) he was "seemingly trying to circumvent safety processes for expediency," with OpenAI co-founder/chief scientist Ilya telling three board members "I don't think Sam is the guy who should have the finger on the button for AGI." (The board had already discovered Altman "had not been forthcoming with them about a range of issues" including a breach in the Deployment Safety Board's protocols.)

Adapted from the upcoming book, [2] Empire of AI , the article first revisits the summer of 2023, when Sutskever ("the brain behind the large language models that helped build ChatGPT") met with a group of new researchers:

> Sutskever had long believed that artificial general intelligence, or AGI, was inevitable — now, as things accelerated in the generative-AI industry, he believed AGI's arrival was imminent , according to Geoff Hinton, an AI pioneer who was his Ph.D. adviser and mentor, and another person familiar with Sutskever's thinking.... To people around him, Sutskever seemed consumed by thoughts of this impending civilizational transformation. What would the world look like when a supreme AGI emerged and surpassed humanity? And what responsibility did OpenAI have to ensure an end state of extraordinary prosperity, not extraordinary suffering?

>

> By then, Sutskever, who had previously dedicated most of his time to advancing AI capabilities, had started to focus half of his time on AI safety. He appeared to people around him as both boomer and doomer: more excited and afraid than ever before of what was to come. That day, during the meeting with the new researchers, he laid out a plan. "Once we all get into the bunker — " he began, according to a researcher who was present.

>

> "I'm sorry," the researcher interrupted, "the bunker?"

>

> "We're definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI," Sutskever replied. Such a powerful technology would surely become an object of intense desire for governments globally. The core scientists working on the technology would need to be protected. "Of course," he added, "it's going to be optional whether you want to get into the bunker." Two other sources I spoke with confirmed that Sutskever commonly mentioned such a bunker. "There is a group of people — Ilya being one of them — who believe that building AGI will bring about a rapture," the researcher told me. "Literally, a rapture...."

>

> But by the middle of 2023 — around the time he began speaking more regularly about the idea of a bunker — Sutskever was no longer just preoccupied by the possible cataclysmic shifts of AGI and superintelligence, according to sources familiar with his thinking. He was consumed by another anxiety: the erosion of his faith that OpenAI could even keep up its technical advancements to reach AGI, or bear that responsibility with Altman as its leader. Sutskever felt Altman's pattern of behavior was undermining the two pillars of OpenAI's mission, the sources said: It was slowing down research progress and eroding any chance at making sound AI-safety decisions.

"For a brief moment, OpenAI's future was an open question. It might have taken a path away from aggressive commercialization and Altman. But this is not what happened," the article concludes. Instead there was "a lack of clarity from the board about their reasons for firing Altman." There was fear about a failure to realize their potential (and some employees feared losing a chance to sell millions of dollars' worth of their equity).

"Faced with the possibility of OpenAI falling apart, Sutskever's resolve immediately started to crack... He began to plead with his fellow board members to reconsider their position on Altman." And in the end "Altman would come back; there was no other way to save OpenAI."

> To me, the drama highlighted one of the most urgent questions of our generation: How do we govern artificial intelligence? With AI on track to rewire a great many other crucial functions in society, that question is really asking: How do we ensure that we'll make our future better, not worse? The events of November 2023 illustrated in the clearest terms just how much a power struggle among a tiny handful of Silicon Valley elites is currently shaping the future of this technology. And the scorecard of this centralized approach to AI development is deeply troubling. OpenAI today has become everything that it said it would not be....

The author believes OpenAI "has grown ever more secretive, not only cutting off access to its own research but shifting norms across the industry to no longer share meaningful technical details about AI models..."

"At the same time, more and more doubts have risen about the true economic value of generative AI, including a [3]growing [4]body of [5]studies that have shown that the technology is not translating into productivity gains for most workers, while it's also [6]eroding their critical thinking ."



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/we-re-definitely-going-to-build-a-bunker-before-we-release-agi/ar-AA1ERwqj

[2] https://bookshop.org/p/books/empire-of-ai-dreams-and-nightmares-in-sam-altman-s-openai-karen-hao/4d0c1753c458e708

[3] https://hbr.org/2024/01/is-genais-impact-on-productivity-overblown

[4] https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/top-of-mind/gen-ai-too-much-spend-too-little-benefit

[5] https://investors.upwork.com/news-releases/news-release-details/upwork-study-finds-employee-workloads-rising-despite-increased-c

[6] https://www.404media.co/microsoft-study-finds-ai-makes-human-cognition-atrophied-and-unprepared-3/

An anonymous reader shared [1]this report from The Hill :

> A new study indicates the debilitating "brain fog" [2]suffered by millions of long COVID patients is linked to changes in the brain, including inflammation and an impaired ability to rewire itself following COVID-19 infection. United Press International [3]reported this week that the small-scale study, conducted by researchers at Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Michigan State University, shows that altered levels of a pair of key brain chemicals could be the culprit.

>

> The study marks the first time doctors have been able to provide scientific proof that validates the experiences of the approximately 12 million COVID "long-haulers" in the U.S. who have reported neurological symptoms. Researchers looked at biomarkers in study participants and found that those complaining of brain fog had higher levels of an anti-inflammatory protein that is crucial to regulating a person's immune system, [4]UPI reported . They also showed lower serum levels of nerve growth factor, a protein vital to the brain's plasticity...

>

> One of the biggest issues involving long COVID has been doctors' inability to find physical proof of the symptoms described by patients. The study has changed that, according to co-author Dr. Bengt Arnetz.



[1] https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5304990-long-covid-brain-fog-inflammation-stress/

[2] https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/health-headlines/ap-brain-fog-and-other-long-covid-symptoms-are-the-focus-of-new-small-treatment-studies/

[3] https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2025/05/15/Long-COVID-patients-show-altered-levels-key-brain-chemicals-study-finds/2651747072883/

[4] https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2025/05/15/Long-COVID-patients-show-altered-levels-key-brain-chemicals-study-finds/2651747072883/

"Shares of Ubisoft sank 18% on Thursday," [1]reports CNBC , "after the French video game firm reported full-year earnings that disappointed investors... The company's shares have lost almost 60% of their value in the past 12 months, as the firm faced financial struggles, development hurdles, and underperformance of some of its key titles."

Ubisoft said its latest Assassin's Creed game "delivered the second-highest Day 1 sales revenue in franchise history and set a new record for Ubisoft's Day 1 performance on the PlayStation digital store," [2]according to Reuters . And [3]AFP notes that according to data from consultancy Circana, that game become the second-best-selling game of the year so far in the U.S. But...

> [A] string of disappointing releases undermined this year's performance, with a net loss of 159 million euros ($178 million) on revenues of 1.9 billion — down 17.5 percent year-on-year. Over the past 12 months, Ubisoft's would-be blockbuster "Star Wars Outlaws" fell short of sales expectations on release, while it cancelled multiplayer first-person shooter "XDefiant" for lack of players. "This year has been a challenging one for Ubisoft, with mixed dynamics across our portfolio, amid intense industry competition," chief executive Yves Guillemot said in a statement. But a string of disappointing releases undermined this year's performance, with a net loss of 159 million euros ($178 million) on revenues of 1.9 billion — down 17.5 percent year-on-year.

>

> The group expects the measure to hold steady in the coming 2025-26 financial year, during which it will release a new "Prince of Persia" game, strategy title "Anno 117: Pax Romana" and mobile versions of shooters "Rainbow Six" and "The Division"... Moving to address its business woes, Ubisoft said in late March that it would create a new subsidiary to manage its three top franchises: "Assassin's Creed", "Far Cry" and "Rainbow Six".

"Since January, the shares have lost more than 12 percent, touching their lowest price in over a decade in April."



[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/15/assassins-creed-maker-ubisoft-ubi-stock-plunges-on-dismal-outlook.html

[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/frances-ubisoft-full-year-net-bookings-fall-205-2025-05-14/

[3] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250514-assassin-s-creed-no-saviour-for-struggling-ubisoft

"Researchers are seeking a breakthrough in technologies to tackle PFAS contamination," [1]reports the Washington Post — including experiments with ultraviolet light, plasma and sound waves:

> "We're in a good spot," said Christopher Higgins, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Colorado School of Mines who researches PFAS. "There's a lot of things being tested. ... Around the world, everyone is trying to work on this topic...." PFAS destruction technologies are beginning to show potential. Some methods have been licensed by companies that are rolling out the systems in real-world settings. "There's been a lot of research happening over the past few years looking at advanced destruction technologies, and there's been a lot of improvements and advancements, and we're now starting to see some of them actually at scale," said Anna Reade [a senior scientist and director of PFAS advocacy at the Natural Resources Defense Council].

>

> An approach known as supercritical water oxidation is one of the more developed technologies, Reade and other experts said. It involves heating and pressurizing water to a specific point that creates the ideal conditions to break every carbon fluorine bond, said Amy Dindal [a PFAS expert with Battelle, a science and technology nonprofit that has developed a PFAS destruction technology]. The process used in a patented technology created by Battelle produces carbon dioxide and a form of fluorine that can be quickly neutralized to become a harmless salt. "It's a complete destruction and mineralization technology, because we're actually breaking all of the carbon fluorine bonds," Dindal said, adding that the technology is "PFAS agnostic...."

>

> Another promising approach using heat and pressure was developed by researchers at the Colorado School of Mines [and already licensed by a company in Washington]. Known as [2]hydrothermal alkaline treatment , or HALT, it involves adding a low-cost chemical reagent such as sodium hydroxide to superheated liquid water.... A destruction method that harnesses ultraviolet light has also emerged as a contender [ [3]has licensed by a company in Michigan]. When UV light oxidizes an electron-generating compound, it produces a powerful electron that's very reactive and strong enough to break carbon fluorine bonds... Other technologies are experimenting with the use of plasma, which can generate reactive electrons to break down PFAS but tends to require a large amount of energy. Researchers are also experimenting with a process that uses sound waves. High-intensity sound waves create small bubbles in a water system or liquid waste stream, Higgins said. As those bubbles collapse, they can generate the high temperatures and pressure needed to degrade PFAS.

But "At the end of the day, not using these chemicals unless it's absolutely necessary is the actually most effective tool in our toolbox," Reade said.



[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-most-promising-ways-to-destroy-forever-chemicals/ar-AA1EGr8V

[2] https://www.minesnewsroom.com/news/colorado-school-mines-partners-aquagga-commercialize-pfas-destruction-technology

[3] https://innovationcenter.msu.edu/enspired-solutions-to-forever-chemicals/

"With the help of more than five dozen fossils, paleontologists have uncovered a tiny three-eyed predator nicknamed the 'sea moth'," [1]reports CNN , "that swam in Earth's oceans 506 million years ago."

Tiny as in 15 to 61 mm in total body length. (That's 0.60 to 2.4 inches...) But check out the illustration in CNN's article...

> Mosura fentoni , as the species is known, belongs to a group called [2]radiodonts , an early offshoot of the arthropod evolutionary tree, according to a new study published Tuesday [3]in the journal Royal Society Open Science . While radiodonts are now extinct, studying their fossilized remains can illuminate how modern arthropods such as insects, spiders and crabs evolved. One of the most diverse animal groups, arthropods are believed to account for more than 80% of living animal species, said lead study author Dr. Joe Moysiuk, curator of paleontology and geology at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg.

>

> Well-preserved specimens of the previously unknown Mosura fentoni also reveal something that's never been seen in any other radiodont: an abdomen-like body region with 16 segments that include gills at its rear. This part of the creature's anatomy is similar to a batch of segments bearing respiratory organs at the rear of the body found in distant modern radiodont relatives like horseshoe crabs, woodlice and insects, Moysiuk said.... No animal living today quite looks like Mosura fentoni, Moysiuk said, although it had jointed claws similar to those of modern insects and crustaceans. But unlike those critters, which can have two or four additional eyes used to help maintain orientation, Mosura had a larger and more conspicuous third eye in the middle of its head.

>

> "Although not closely related, Mosura probably swam in a similar way to a ray, undulating its multiple sets of swimming flaps up and down, like flying underwater," Moysiuk said in an email. "It also had a mouth shaped like a pencil sharpener and lined with rows of serrated plates, unlike any living animal." About the size of an adult human's index finger, Mosura and its swimming flaps vaguely resemble a moth, which led researchers to call it the "sea moth."

The Royal Society publication notes the etymology of the species name ( Mosura fentoni is "from the name of the fictional Japanese monster, or kaiju... also known as 'Mothra'...in reference to the moth-like appearance of the animal."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader [4]walterbyrd for sharing the news.



[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/science/ancient-three-eyed-predator-sea-moth

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/world/huge-radiodont-fossil-discovery-scn

[3] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.242122

[4] https://www.slashdot.org/~walterbyrd

A Curl contributor [1]replaced an ASCII letter with a Unicode alternative in a pull request, writes Curl lead developer/founder Daniel Stenberg. And not a single human reviewer on the team (or any of their CI jobs) noticed.

The change "looked identical to the ASCII version, so it was not possible to visually spot this..."

> The impact of changing one or more letters in a URL can of course be devastating depending on conditions... [W]e have implemented checks to help us poor humans spot things like this. To detect malicious Unicode. We have added [2]a CI job that scans all files and validates every UTF-8 sequence in the git repository.

>

> In the curl git repository most files and most content are plain old ASCII so we can "easily" whitelist a small set of UTF-8 sequences and some specific files, the rest of the files are simply not allowed to use UTF-8 at all as they will then fail the CI job and turn up red. In order to drive this change home, we went through all the test files in the curl repository and made sure that all the UTF-8 occurrences were instead replaced by other kind of escape sequences and similar. Some of them were also used more or less by mistake and could easily be replaced by their ASCII counterparts.

>

> The next time someone tries this stunt on us it could be someone with less good intentions, but now ideally our CI will tell us... We want and strive to be proactive and tighten everything before malicious people exploit some weakness somewhere but security remains this never-ending race where we can only do the best we can and while the other side is working in silence and might at some future point attack us in new creative ways we had not anticipated. That future unknown attack is a tricky thing.

In the original blog post Stenberg complained he got "barely no responses" from GitHub (joking "perhaps they are all just too busy implementing the next AI feature we don't want.") But hours later he posted an update.

"GitHub has told me they have raised this as a security issue internally and they are working on a fix."



[1] https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2025/05/16/detecting-malicious-unicode/

[2] https://github.com/curl/curl/blob/master/.github/scripts/spacecheck.pl

Microsoft has [1]released Command Palette , an enhanced version of its PowerToys Run launcher introduced five years ago. The utility, aimed at power users and developers, provides quick access to applications, files, calculations, and system commands through a Spotlight-like interface.

Command Palette integrates the previously separate Window Walker functionality for switching between open windows and supports launching command prompts, executing web searches, and navigating folder structures. Unlike its predecessor, the new launcher offers full customization via extensions, allowing users to implement additional commands beyond default capabilities. Available through the PowerToys application since early April, Command Palette can be triggered using Win+Alt+Space after installation



[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/668719/microsoft-command-palette-powertoy-launcher

Australia's first orbital-class rocket launch was delayed after the nose cone of Gilmour Space's Eris rocket [1]unexpectedly detached due to an electrical fault during final preparations . Although no damage occurred and no payload was onboard, the company is postponing the launch to investigate and replace the fairing before attempting another test flight. Ars Technica reports:

> Gilmour, the Australian startup that developed the Eris rocket, announced the setback in a post to the company's social media accounts Thursday. "During final launch preparations last night, an electrical fault triggered the system that opens the rocket's nose cone (the payload fairing)," Gilmour [2]posted on LinkedIn . "This happened before any fuel was loaded into the vehicle. Most importantly, no one was injured, and early checks show no damage to the rocket or the launch pad."

>

> Gilmour was gearing up for a launch attempt from a privately owned spaceport in the Australian state of Queensland early Friday, local time (Thursday in the United States). The company's Eris rocket, which was poised for its first test flight, stands about 82 feet (25 meters) tall with its payload fairing intact. It's designed to haul a payload of about 670 pounds (305 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit.

>

> While Gilmour didn't release any photos of the accident, a company spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the payload fairing "deployed" after the unexpected electrical issue triggered the separation system. Payload fairings are like clamshells that enclose the satellites mounted to the top of their launch vehicle, protecting them from weather on the launch pad and from airflow as the rocket accelerates to supersonic speeds. Once in space, the rocket releases the payload shroud, usually in two halves. There were no satellites aboard the rocket as Gilmour prepared for its first test flight.

The report notes that the Eris rocket is aiming to "become the first all-Australian launcher to reach orbit."



[1] https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/05/the-top-fell-off-australias-first-orbital-class-rocket-delaying-its-launch/

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7328897706481909761/

NASA engineers have [1]successfully revived Voyager 1's backup thrusters , unused since 2004 and once considered defunct. Space.com reports:

> This remarkable feat became necessary because the spacecraft's primary thrusters, which control its orientation, have been degrading due to residue buildup. If its thrusters fail completely, Voyager 1 could lose its ability to point its antenna toward Earth, therefore cutting off communication with Earth after nearly 50 years of operation. To make matters more urgent, the team faced a strict deadline while trying to remedy the thruster situation. After May 4, the Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 -- and its twin, Voyager 2 -- was scheduled to go offline for months of upgrades. This would have made timely intervention impossible.

>

> To solve the problem, NASA's team had to reactivate Voyager 1's long-dormant backup roll thrusters and then attempt to restart the heaters that keep them operational. If the star tracker drifted too far from its guide star during this process, the roll thrusters would automatically fire as a safety measure -- but if the heaters weren't back online by then, firing the thrusters could cause a dangerous pressure spike. So, the team had to precisely realign the star tracker before the thrusters engaged. Because Voyager is so incredibly distant, the team faced an agonizing 23-hour wait for the radio signal to travel all the way back to Earth. If the test had failed, Voyager might have already been in serious trouble. Then, on March 20, their patience was finally rewarded when Voyager responded perfectly to their commands. Within 20 minutes of receiving the signal, the team saw the thruster heaters' temperature soar -- a clear sign that the backup thrusters were firing as planned.

"It was such a glorious moment. Team morale was very high that day," Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL, said in the statement. "These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It's just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause, and it was fixable. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager."



[1] https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/nasa-resurrects-voyager-1-interstellar-spacecrafts-thrusters-after-20-years-these-thrusters-were-considered-dead

"The world has changed," [1]writes Stack Overflow's blog . "Fast. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we build, learn, and solve problems. Software development looks dramatically different than it did even a few years ago — and the pace of change is only accelerating."

And they believe their brand "at times" lost "fidelity and clarity. It's very much been always added to and not been thought of holistically. So, it's time for our brand to evolve too," they write, hoping to articulate a perspective "forged in the fires of community, powered by collaboration, shaped by AI, and driven by people."

The developer news site DevClass notes the change happens " [2]as the number of posts to its site continues a dramatic decline thanks to AI-driven alternatives ."

> According to a quick query on the official [3]data explorer , the sum of questions and answers posted in April 2025 was down by over 64 percent from the same month in 2024, and plunged more than 90 percent from April 2020, when traffic was near its peak...

>

> Although declining traffic is a sign of Stack Overflow's reduced significance in the developer community, the company's business is not equally affected so far. Stack Exchange is a business owned by investment company Prosus, and the Stack Exchange products include private versions of its site (Stack Overflow for Teams) as well as advertising and recruitment. According to the [4]Prosus financial results , in the six months ended September 2024, Stack Overflow increased its revenue and reduced its losses. The company's search for a new direction though confirms that the fast-disappearing developer engagement with Stack Overflow poses an existential challenge to the organization.

DevClass says Stack Overflow's parent company "is casting about for new ways to provide value (and drive business) in this context..."

> The company has already experimented with various new services, via its Labs research department, including an AI Answer Assistant and Question Assistant, as well as a revamped jobs site in association with recruitment site Indeed, Discussions for technical debate, and extensions for GitHub Copilot, Slack, and Visual Studio Code.

From the [5]official announcement on Stack Overflow's blog :

> This rebrand isn't just a fresh coat of paint. It's a realignment with our purpose: to support the builders of the future in an AI world — with clarity, speed, and humanity. It's about showing up in a way that reflects who we are today, and where we're headed tomorrow.

"We have appointed an internal steering group and we have engaged with an external expert partner in this area to help bring about the required change," notes a [6]post in Stack Exchange's "meta" area .

> This isn't just about a visual update or marketing exercise — it's going to bring about a shift in how we present ourselves to the world which you will feel everywhere from the design to the copywriting, so that we can better achieve our goals and shared mission. As the emergence of AI has called into question the role of Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange Network, one of the desired outputs of the rebrand process is to clarify our place in the world.

>

> We've done work toward this already — our [7]recent community AMA is an example of this — but we want to ensure that this comes across in our brand and identity as well. We want the community to be involved and have a strong voice in the process of renewing and refreshing our brand. Remember, Stack Overflow started with a [8]public discussion about what to name it !

And another [9]another post two months ago

> Stack Exchange is exploring early ideas for expanding beyond the "single lane" Q&A highway. Our goal right now is to better understand the problems, opportunities, and needs before deciding on any specific changes...

>

> The vision is to potentially enable:

>

> - A slower lane, with high-quality durable knowledge that takes time to create and curate, like questions and answers.

>

> - A medium lane, for more flexible engagement, with features like Discussions or more flexible Stack Exchanges, where users can explore ideas or share opinions.

>

> - A fast lane for quick, real-time interaction, with features like Chat that can bring the community together to discuss topics instantly.

>

> With this in mind, we're seeking your feedback on the current state of Chat, what's most important to you, and how you see Chat fitting into the future.

In a post in Stack Exchange's "meta" area, brand design director David Longworth [10]says the "tension mentioned between Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange" is probably the most relevant to the rebranding.

But he [11]posted later that "There's a lot of people behind the scenes on this who care deeply about getting this right! Thank you on behalf of myself and the team."



[1] https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/05/08/a-new-look-for-whats-next/

[2] https://devclass.com/2025/05/13/stack-overflow-seeks-rebrand-as-traffic-continues-to-plummet-which-is-bad-news-for-developers/

[3] https://data.stackexchange.com/

[4] https://www.prosus.com/investors/results-reports-events/latest-financial-results

[5] https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/05/08/a-new-look-for-whats-next/

[6] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/408823/after-16-years-we-re-renewing-the-brand

[7] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/407025/recapping-stack-s-first-community-wide-ama-ask-me-anything

[8] https://blog.codinghorror.com/help-name-our-website/

[9] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/407158/how-might-chat-evolve-help-us-identify-problems-and-opportunities

[10] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/408823/after-16-years-we-re-renewing-the-brand#comment1362020_408823

[11] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/408823/after-16-years-we-re-renewing-the-brand#comment1362039_408834

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press:

> U.S. health officials on Friday [1]endorsed the first blood test that can help diagnose Alzheimer's and identify patients who may benefit from drugs that can modestly slow the memory-destroying disease. The test can aid doctors in determining whether a patient's memory problems are due to Alzheimer's or a number of other medical conditions that can cause cognitive difficulties. The Food and Drug Administration [2]cleared it for patients 55 and older who are showing early signs of the disease.

>

> The new test, from Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., identifies a sticky brain plaque, known as beta-amyloid, that is a key marker for Alzheimer's. Previously, the only FDA-approved methods for detecting amyloid were invasive tests of spinal fluid or expensive PET scans. The lower costs and convenience of a blood test could also help expand use of two new drugs, Leqembi and Kisunla, which have been shown to slightly slow the progression of Alzheimer's by clearing amyloid from the brain. Doctors are required to test patients for the plaque before prescribing the drugs, which require regular IV infusions. [...]

>

> A number of specialty hospitals and laboratories have already developed their own in-house tests for amyloid in recent years. But those tests aren't reviewed by the FDA and generally aren't covered by insurance. Doctors have also had little data to judge which tests are reliable and accurate, leading to an unregulated marketplace that some have called a "wild west." Several larger diagnostic and drug companies are also developing their own tests for FDA approval, including Roche, Eli Lilly and C2N Diagnostics. The tests can only be ordered by a doctor and aren't intended for people who don't yet have any symptoms.



[1] https://apnews.com/article/alzheimers-blood-test-fda-leqembi-kisunla-ad3cffe0bd540accf47e8ee105b439a9

[2] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-clears-first-blood-test-used-diagnosing-alzheimers-disease

Walmart is preparing for a future [1]where AI agents shop on behalf of consumers by adapting its systems to serve both humans and autonomous bots. As major players like Visa and PayPal also invest in agentic commerce, Walmart is positioning itself as a leader by developing its own AI agents and supporting broader industry integration. PYMNTS reports:

> Instead of scrolling through ads or comparing product reviews, future consumers may rely on digital assistants, like OpenAI's Operator, to manage their shopping lists, from replenishing household essentials to selecting the best TV based on personal preferences, according to [2]the report (paywalled). "It will be different," Walmart U.S. Chief Technology Officer Hari Vasudev said, per the report. "Advertising will have to evolve." The emergence of AI-generated summaries in search results has already altered the way consumers gather product information, the report said. However, autonomous shopping agents represent a bigger transformation. These bots could not only find products but also finalize purchases, including payments, without the user ever lifting a finger. [...]

>

> Retail experts say agentic commerce will require companies to overhaul how they market and present their products online, the WSJ report said. They may need to redesign product pages and pricing strategies to cater to algorithmic buyers. The customer relationship could shift away from retailers if purchases are completed through third-party agents. [...] To prepare, Walmart is developing its own AI shopping agents, accessible through its website and app, according to the WSJ report. These bots can already handle basic tasks like reordering groceries, and they're being trained to respond to broader prompts, such as planning a themed birthday party. Walmart is working toward a future in which outside agents can seamlessly communicate with the retailer's own systems -- something Vasudev told the WSJ he expects to be governed by industry-wide protocols that are still under development. [...]

>

> Third-party shopping bots may also act independently, crawling retailers' websites much like consumers browse stores without engaging sales associates, the WSJ report said. In those cases, the retailer has little control over how its products are evaluated. Whether consumers instruct their AI to shop specifically at Walmart or ask for the best deal available, the outcomes will increasingly be shaped by algorithms, per the report. Operator, for example, considers search ranking, sponsored content and user preferences when making recommendations. That's a far cry from how humans shop. Bots don't respond to eye-catching visuals or emotionally driven branding in the same way people do. This means retailers must optimize their content not just for people but for machine readers as well, the report said. Pricing strategies could also shift as companies may need to make rapid pricing decisions and determine whether it's worth offering AI agents exclusive discounts to keep them from choosing a competitor's lower-priced item, according to the report.



[1] https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2025/walmart-prepares-future-where-ai-shops-rather-than-consumers/

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-is-preparing-to-welcome-its-next-customer-the-ai-shopping-agent-6659ef18

In an exclusive interview with the BBC, AWS CEO Matt Garman said the UK [1]must expand nuclear energy to meet the soaring electricity demands of AI-driven data centers . From the report:

> Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is part of the retail giant Amazon, plans to spend 8 billion pounds on new data centers in the UK over the next four years. Matt Garman, chief executive of AWS, told the BBC nuclear is a "great solution" to data centres' energy needs as "an excellent source of zero carbon, 24/7 power." AWS is the single largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world and has funded more than 40 renewable solar and wind farm projects in the UK.

>

> The UK's 500 data centres currently consume 2.5% of all electricity in the UK, while Ireland's 80 hoover up 21% of the country's total power, with those numbers projected to hit 6% and 30% respectively by 2030. The body that runs the UK's power grid estimates that by 2050 data centers alone will use nearly as much energy as all industrial users consume today.

>

> In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Matt Garman said that future energy needs were central to AWS planning process. "It's something we plan many years out," he said. "We invest ahead. I think the world is going to have to build new technologies. I believe nuclear is a big part of that particularly as we look 10 years out."



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewd5014wpno