05 Aug 2026
Ars Technica
Pushing the limits: Infinite Machine's Olto is barely a bicycle
Scooter layout makes pedaling a bad experience. But it does have pedals.
05 Aug 2026 11:00am GMT
Slashdot
NVMe Polishes Its Specs, Brings Virtualization to Locally Attached SSDs
The latest NVMe specifications add SSD-level virtualization that can simplify live VM migration by preserving storage identities across servers. The updates also introduce support for post-quantum cryptography, controller-based rate limiting, voltage monitoring, and factory-reset capabilities. The Register reports: Announced by the NVM Express consortium, all 11 of the suite of NVMe specs have been updated with new features and engineering change notices. These represent the next step in the evolution of the standard, it says, which was created as a protocol to support storage devices connected to a system's PCIe bus. Perhaps the most significant new capability is PCIe Exported NVM Subsystem Migration. This extends existing NVMe virtualization to locally-attached PCIe SSDs. It does this by abstracting the physical drives into host-defined virtualized NVM subsystems, to allow for virtual machine (VM) mobility without storage reconfiguration. When a VM moves from one server to another, its storage also needs to move with it in a way that's non-disruptive to any applications running in that VM. "With NVM Subsystem Migration, NVMe SSDs can present exported NVM subsystems that hide the complexity of the underlying hardware," says Mike Allison, a senior director at SSD maker Samsung and NVM Express board member. "Instead of interacting with physical controllers and namespaces, the host only sees exported controllers and namespaces. This creates a clean separation between what the VM sees and what's happening under the hood," Allison explains on an NVM Express blog. "One of the key innovations here is providing the host with control over exported identifiers. During migration, those identifiers can be carried over exactly from the source to the destination. That consistency is crucial: even if the underlying hardware uses different internal IDs, the VM sees no change and can pick up right where it left off with no storage reconfiguration required," he says. In effect, the NVMe layer now enables the virtual machine manager (VMM) to rely on virtualization built into the SSD. The flash drive itself exposes logical, virtualized storage constructs, offloading this complexity from the VMM. You can learn more about the updated NVMe specifications here.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
05 Aug 2026 11:00am GMT
Watch a SpaceX Rocket Crash Into the Moon
A four-ton SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage left drifting after a 2025 lunar mission is expected to crash into the Moon at about 5,400 mph, likely striking Einstein Crater. The impact should occur at approximately 2:35 a.m. ET (0635GMT). Reuters reports: Such stages typically fall back into Earth's atmosphere and burn up or plunge into the ocean after boosting the rocket's payload to a precise spot in orbit. But because the January lunar lander mission required more thrust than missions closer to Earth, the rocket's second stage remained in space, floating aimlessly among thousands of other pieces of space junk that active satellites must steer clear of. It was not until earlier this year that astronomers determined that the rocket stage, which had dumped its remaining fuel and cannot be controlled, was on an orbital trajectory ending at the moon. "What has happened is essentially a mixture of solar activity and gravity forces have put it on a path toward the moon," Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX director of NASA science and Dragon programs, told reporters on Monday. "This may be of some -- probably minor -- scientific interest, and we may learn some things from it," said Bill Gray, creator of widely used astronomy software who published a report on the stage's impact in April. "It doesn't present any danger to anyone, though it does highlight a certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware (space junk) is disposed of." You can try to watch the impact via a livestream on YouTube; however, the area it's expected to hit (Einstein Crater) is on the moon's western limb, "which is often difficult to see from Earth," notes Reuters. It will also likely "kick up a plume of lunar dust that will likely be illuminated by sunlight but difficult to spot with the naked eye from Earth."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
05 Aug 2026 6:00am GMT
Texas Halts Data Center Connections To Power Grid Amid Overwhelming Demand
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Nowhere is the US data center boom bigger than in Texas. But less than a year after declaring Texas the "epicenter of AI development," Governor Greg Abbott has declared a moratorium on all new power grid connections for data centers -- at least until developers provide more information about their projects' potential impacts on the grid and communities. The Republican governor directed regulators in an August 3 announcement at the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the grid operators at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to perform a "comprehensive verification and audit of all data centers advancing through ERCOT's interconnection process." As an independent system operator, ERCOT oversees a power grid that operates separately from the rest of the United States and provides services to most of Texas. Texas has aggressively courted data center development with its availability of cheap land and relatively abundant energy resources, along with offering state incentives, like tax breaks and fewer regulations. That puts the state on track to surpass Virginia in becoming the largest US data center market. But the recent AI boom and the accompanying frenzy of data center development threaten to overwhelm the Texas grid on paper, despite the state leading the country in adding new power generation. The ERCOT interconnection queue currently includes more than 1,800 projects representing over 474 gigawatts' worth of requests to connect to the Texas grid -- more than five times Texas' record peak electricity demand -- and about 90 percent of those power connection requests come from data centers. "That unprecedented load growth could endanger the reliability and stability of the Texas electric grid," according to the statement from Abbott's office. Many of those data center projects may never materialize for various reasons. But ERCOT has still forecast that data center demand and other factors could drive statewide electricity demand to double the current demand record by 2032, according to The Texas Tribune. The review will examine each project's projected electricity consumption, reliance on the grid and state incentives, ownership, and water use. It will also assess measures intended to "reduce impacts on neighboring property owners and communities," including noise controls, lighting, traffic improvements, setbacks, and emergency planning. Ars Technica notes that the directive does not address air pollution or greenhouse-gas emissions and does not apply to data centers generating their own power on-site.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
05 Aug 2026 3:30am GMT
04 Aug 2026
Ars Technica
Senators demand crackdown on wildfire "prediction markets"
Fire experts warn such markets could incentivize arson.
04 Aug 2026 9:52pm GMT
OSnews
Corporate players in Amiga community sign various agreements to clear up some of the decades-old licensing and ownership mess
Few things in technology are more complex, convoluted, and riddled with literally decades of drama than the Amiga community. Luckily for all of us, a significant step forward has been made today: several of the key corporate players in the community have struck agreements to settle their legal disputes. CIC licenses software and documentation for Commodore's 8-bit computers from Amiga. In return, Amiga is permitted to continue using the Commodore trademarks in a "historical or descriptive context," such as old documentation, copyright notices in existing software, or as symbols on a keyboard. The agreement with Hyperion does not change the status of AmigaOS 4 - which was never a point of contention, according to Amiga - but it does specify exactly which code and trademarks the Belgian company is permitted to use . But Hyperion's involvement in the 68k market will end on December 31, 2027: the licensee may continue to distribute versions of AmigaOS 3 until then, including the as-yet-unreleased AmigaOS 3.3. After that, Hyperion will deliver source code, revision history, and documentation for AmigaOS 3.1.4 and its updates, including all fixes and updates, but excluding AmigaOS 4 code backported into AmigaOS 3.2 or 3.3, to Amiga Corporation and release the developers involved in the project from all obligations to Hyperion. Amiga itself will then take over further development of AmigaOS 3 in the future. ↫ Post on amiga-news.de Hyperion is the company most known for developing AmigaOS 4, and with these agreements in place, they claim they can finally spend time focusing on getting AmigaOS 4.2 out the door. These agreements will also consolidate most of the AmigaOS 3.x code and IP under a single banner, which should make its status quite a bit clearer going forward. Whether or not any of this is actually good and beneficial to the Amiga platform as a whole and its individual branches - 3.x and 4.x, in particular - is anyone's guess. I don't think there's anyone here on OSNews who wouldn't be interested in, say, an affordable and - most importantly - available AmigaOS 4 machine. While I have no clue if clearing up some of the licensing, IP, and ownership confusions will aid in getting new AmigaOS 4 hardware, it surely won't make it any harder.
04 Aug 2026 9:52pm GMT
But can your calculator run Linux?
Don't have enough computing devices on your wish list yet? Do you have a need for a graphing calculator? No? What if it can run Linux and even Windows 10? I see I've got your attention. The HP Prime is a graphing calculator on the market since 2013, with a hardware revision in 2018 (the G2 model). It has a touch screen and as far as I can find, most people are happy with it and find it a very capable and fast calculator. Here are some pictures of the opened up calculator and here is a website with some more downloads. I'm not really interested in the calculator part. For most calculations I do for my day job, embedded programming, the HP-16C is a better fit. I was interested in this device because I found posts online suggesting it could run Linux and even a Windows 10 port. ↫ Remy van Elst I had no idea just how overpowered - for a graphing calculator - the G2 really is. It's basically an Android smartphone from a few years ago, and that means that yes, it can run Linux, including X, Doom, and tons of other applications. It's not the easiest of devices to get custom software onto, but also not particularly difficult - you need to open it up and short two pads - so if you have one, it's definitely a fun project. Apparently, someone also ported EUFI for Windows 10 to this thing, so you can do silly stuff like run the Windows calculator on the G2 calculator. Wild. Now I kind of want one.
04 Aug 2026 9:30pm GMT
Ars Technica
Trump killed the Digital Equity Act, but US was forced to bring part of it back
$1.25 billion program restored, but judge ruled race provision unconstitutional.
04 Aug 2026 9:27pm GMT
OSnews
Wireguard comes to 9front
Want to switch to 9front, especially with the new release having just been made available, but really need Wireguard? Fret not! Wireguard is now available on 9front, experimentally.
04 Aug 2026 9:07pm GMT
01 Aug 2026
Planet Arch Linux
Resigning from Arch Linux
This is just a short note on my blog that I have resigned from Arch Linux a package maintainer, developer and security team. I've spent around 10 years as an AUR maintainer, security team, Package Maintainer and then Developer. I implemented support for debug packages, did the initial POC work that would become the git migration and even somehow managed to pull of an online conference during The Plague with the help of others.
01 Aug 2026 12:00am GMT
01 Jun 2026
Planet Arch Linux
Today is my first day at JetBrains
Good morning from JetBrains Berlin office!
01 Jun 2026 12:00am GMT
11 May 2026
Planet Arch Linux
Ratty: A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics
Just trying to answer one simple question: What if the terminal was 3D?
11 May 2026 12:00am GMT