‘John Appleseed’
Define ‘Boom’ Please
Ed Young #APAHM #AANHPI
An exhibit celebrating Chinese-American illustrator Ed Young is on view now at The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), which is located at 215 Centre Street New York, NY 10013. The exhibit titled Ed Young’s Bright Worlds: Gesture and Feeling in 60 Years of Picture Books for Children is open now through September. Lon Po […]
Ted Turner’s Small Apartment Above the Former CNN Center
Microsoft Testing Adjustable Taskbar, Start Menu In Windows 11
Microsoft is testing long-requested Windows 11 customization options, including a resizable taskbar, smaller taskbar buttons, and a more configurable Start menu that lets users reduce recommended content. BleepingComputer reports: Starting with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8493, the taskbar can now be configured to use smaller buttons and moved to the bottom, top, left, or right side of the screen. "The ability to move the taskbar to the top or sides of the screen has been one of the most requested features, and we are bringing it to Windows 11," said Diego Baca, partner director of Microsoft Design. "With this update, when small taskbar is enabled, you get smaller icons, a shorter taskbar, and more vertical space for your apps (see video below). No restart or sign-out is required."
[...] Microsoft is also rolling out changes to give Windows users more control over the Start menu, allowing them to toggle off recommended content and customize its size. "These controls are designed to work together. If you want a Start menu with just your pinned apps, you can turn off Recommended and All," Boca added. "If you want a full Start that shows everything, you can leave it all on. The goal is simple: it is your choice, and it should be easy to make." However, Microsoft will maintain a list of recently installed apps, as it is a key way for users to discover new applications alongside the Microsoft Store.
Furthermore, Microsoft is improving file relevance by adjusting how files are displayed and ordered to prioritize the most relevant items, and will also allow users to hide their name and profile picture from the Start menu. [...] In addition to taskbar and Start menu improvements, the company plans to reduce notifications, simplify Windows settings, and ensure that device setup on new Windows PCs requires fewer reboots. Microsoft is also working on improving Windows search, aiming for a more consistent experience across the Start menu, taskbar, File Explorer, and Settings.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
★ AI Is Technology, Not a Product
It’s not even a feature. It’s just technology.
Existing Stakeholders Have a Say in the Future
Gyroflow stabilizes video using gyroscope data
Gyroflow is an application that can stabilize your video by using motion data from a gyroscope and optionally an accelerometer. Modern cameras record that data internally (GoPro, Sony, Insta360 etc), and this application stabilizes the captured footage precisely by using them. It can also use gyro data from an external source (eg. from Betaflight blackbox). […]
‘AI, “Humanity”, and Dr. Manhattan Syndrome’
The US Is Betting On AI To Catch Insider Trading In Prediction Markets
The CFTC says it is ramping up efforts to catch insider trading and market manipulation in prediction markets, using AI tools, blockchain tracing, and other surveillance systems to flag suspicious bets. It's also monitoring activity by U.S. traders accessing offshore platforms like Polymarket through VPNs. Wired reports: [T]he Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees prediction markets, wants you to know that it's watching very, very closely. The agency is searching for suspicious behavior from traders within the United States who have been sneaking onto offshore markets, including Polymarket's crypto platform -- which is blocked stateside -- by using virtual private networks. "We're going to find them, and we're going to bring actions," agency chairman Michael Selig told WIRED this week, speaking from the CFTC's headquarters in Washington, DC. Selig says the agency, which is especially lean right now, is staffing up. Like so many other AI-pilled workplaces, the CFTC is also leaning into automation to handle the growing workload, including tools that analyze trading patterns and flag potential manipulation. "You've got so much data," Selig says. "When we feed it into AI, we get really great information. It can help us understand things, like where we might want to investigate, or when we might need to send a subpoena to a trader."
In addition to proprietary surveillance systems developed in-house, the agency's arsenal includes third-party blockchain tracing tools like Chainalysis for crypto platforms, and market abuse detection software including Nasdaq Smarts for centralized markets. (Beyond Nasdaq Smarts, the agency did not specify which AI tools it uses and declined to share more specific examples.) [...] Selig recently told Congress that the company is pursuing "hundreds, if not thousands" of insider trading tips. Investigations are not limited to federally regulated exchanges. "We're surveilling the markets on a global basis," he tells WIRED.
Selig says that the agency will exert extraterritorial jurisdiction -- its legal ability to enforce its laws beyond traditional boundaries -- when it finds suspicious activity on offshore platforms like Polymarket, though he says it's a case-by-case approach. "We use it in extreme circumstances," he says, with an eye towards whether charges have a strong chance of sticking in court. "In any extraterritorial litigation, there's going to be challenges to our authority, and that could also impair our ability to bring cases in the future." According to Selig, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allows the CFTC more leeway to pursue this kind of enforcement action, by giving it more authority over foreign swap activities that impact the US. When appropriate, the agency works with regulators from other countries, too. "For cases where we're not sure we'll win, or it's less in our wheelhouse and more of a foreign matter, we would relay it to a foreign regulator," he says. "We're constantly referring cases." [...] Selig is insistent that the CFTC is only just getting started. The agency will identify wrongdoers, he says -- no matter "how large or how small."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Introducing the 2026 Apple Design Award finalists
Every year, the Apple Design Awards recognize innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design. But they’ve also become something more: A moment to step back and celebrate the work of Apple developers across the community.
Simulated evolution on the PICO-8
Bumbershoot Software writes about a nice lazy afternoon with PICO-8 making a port of Simulated Evolution. The first challenge, of course, was that I had to write the simulation itself. My earlier implementations were all in C or assembly language, and PICO-8 needs to be programmed in its own dialect of Lua. Happily, Lua is, itself, pretty comfy, […]
The Alaska Permanent Fund as Loose Precedent for AI Data Center ‘UBI’ Payments
A nicer voltmeter clock
On the lcamtuf’s thing blog, they take a design for a metered clock and update it with a modern look. As the name implies, these clocks use analog panel voltmeters instead of traditional clock faces to display time. I didn’t come up with the idea, so I never really blogged about the design; I just […]
The Tomy Tutor and the state of 1983 home computers
The Old Vintage Computing Research blog looks at the Tomy Tutor from 1983: The Tomy Tutor was my first computer, in late 1983. I was seven and we got it at Federated. I’ve acquired several more since then, but this is the actual one I used and it still works perfectly. Using a design modeled on the […]
Coming bright up
Get ready for a week of technology, creativity, and community — all online and free. Here’s what WWDC26 has in store.
WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak a Global Health Emergency
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: The World Health Organization declared on Saturday that the spread of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda was a global health emergency. The announcement was made a day after Africa's leading public health authority reported that an outbreak in a province in the northeast of the country was linked to dozens of suspected deaths. By Saturday, cases had also been confirmed in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, the W.H.O. said.
In Congo's Ituri province, where the outbreak was first identified, 246 suspected cases and 80 deaths attributed to the virus had been reported, although only eight cases had been definitively linked to the virus through laboratory testing. There is no approved vaccine and no therapeutics for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola behind the outbreak, according to the W.H.O. The scale of the outbreak could be far larger than has been detected and reported, the W.H.O. said in declaring a "public health emergency of international concern." It added that there were "significant uncertainties" about the precise number of people infected and the "geographic spread."
The W.H.O.'s declaration signals a public health risk requiring a coordinated international response, and is intended to prompt member countries to prepare for the virus to spread and to share vaccines, treatments and other resources needed to contain the outbreak. [...] The risk of the outbreak spreading is exacerbated by a humanitarian crisis, high population mobility and a large network of informal health care facilities in the area, the agency said. Containing an Ebola outbreak depends on the speed and scale of the public health response. The virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, putting family members and caregivers at particular risk. Tracing people who may have come into contact with sufferers, isolating and treating victims promptly and safely, and burying the dead properly are all viewed as critical steps.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Windows CE 2.11 on the Nintendo 64
ThroatyMumbo on GitHub posts Windows CE 2.11 on the Nintendo 64. Stock Microsoft Windows CE 2.11 running on a real Nintendo 64. A custom HAL drops the unmodified nk.lib kernel onto VR4300, brings up the CE 2.11 GWES desktop and shell, mounts the EverDrive-64 X7’s SD card under \SDCard, treats the N64 controller as a […]
Fisker went bankrupt and owners built open source car company from the ashes
Fred Lambert on Electrek writes how Fisker Ocean SUV owners organized, reverse-engineered their vehicles’ proprietary software, hacked into CAN bus networks, built open-source tools on GitHub, and effectively stood up a volunteer-run open-sourced car company from the ashes of Fisker. From $70,000 SUVs to orphans overnight The speed of Fisker’s collapse was staggering. The company, […]