geek

01 Jul 2026

Slashdot

Reddit Will Require You To Log In To Use Old Reddit

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Reddit will start requiring people to be logged into Reddit to use old.reddit.com. The new requirement will take effect "over the next month," a Reddit employee going by the username boat-botany announced on the social media platform today. The person claimed that the change is part of an ongoing effort to "tighten how automated systems access Reddit." The Reddit employee wrote: "Old Reddit's logged-out experience is a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform. It's also an important interface for many long-time mods and Redditors. To strike the right balance between preserving your access to Old Reddit while preventing abusive scraping and automated traffic, over the next month we will start requiring everyone to log in." In a follow-up comment, boat-botany defined abusive behavior as that which violates Reddit's rule prohibiting activity that interferes with the platform's "normal use" or that "create[s] programs or applications" that break Reddit's (controversial) API rules. "By logging in, we get a lot more signal that allows us to detect whether an account is breaking the rules, and then we can block that traffic or enforce those accounts," boat-botany said. Asked why boat-botany scrapes New Reddit less frequently than Old Reddit, the Reddit employee pointed to another commenter's explanation. "[T]he shape of malicious traffic is always changing," the user, Nestramutat, wrote. "It's going to be a constant cat and mouse game[.] As you ban one method, a new one gets developed. It's easy to see abusive traffic in hindsight, but it's harder to pre-emptively block it. Given that they're claiming Old Reddit doesn't have the modern security stack, this is likely proving to be an even greater challenge." Nestramutat said that the login requirement will add a barrier against threat actors. "You're also now attaching an account ID to every malicious request, plus account creation is only available on New Reddit (with the enhanced security stack)." As for how long Old Reddit will exist, boat-botany left the door open for its retirement. "We can't promise it will be around forever, but [Reddit CEO Steve Huffman] himself has said we'll keep supporting it while folks are still using it," boat-botany wrote. "That said, it doesn't have the same modern security tech stack reddit.com has, so we need to tighten security on old reddit to keep it viable."

Ars Technica

Sony will stop making physical copies of PlayStation games in 2028

"We will own nothing, it's truly sad."

01 Jul 2026 6:41pm GMT

A good little EV you won't be able to buy soon: The Volvo EX30 Cross Country

Tariffs and anti-China policies killed this little Volvo in the United States.

01 Jul 2026 6:24pm GMT

Slashdot

Sony PlayStation Will Stop Releasing Games On Discs In 2028

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from the BBC: New PlayStation games will no longer be released on discs from January 2028, the gaming giant has announced. Sony said in a blog post new games would still be able to be bought in shops, but they would come with a digital code. It comes just days after Rockstar announced the hotly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI would similarly launch without a physical disc. It marks a significant moment for the gaming industry, which has in recent years begun to rely more and more on digital distribution. Sony said the move came "as consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital." "This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs," it added. [...] PlayStation said the move would have no impact on games which are already released, or would be released before January 2028.

Meta Loses Bid To Dismiss US States' Claims That Facebook, Instagram Addict Children

A federal judge rejected Meta's bid to dismiss claims from 29 state attorneys general alleging that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict children while concealing the harms. The judge found significant factual disputes that must be decided at trial. They also ruled that Meta failed to comply with federal parental notice and consent requirements for children under 13, "and granted summary judgement to the states on that issue," reports Reuters. From the report: In a separate statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the decision a "critical win" in holding Meta accountable for fueling a mental health crisis among American children. Gonzalez Rogers also oversees related multidistrict litigation by more than 2,600 individuals, school districts and local governments over whether social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok addict children. The states said research has shown that children's use of Facebook and Instagram could lead to depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and self-harm including suicide. Meta countered that the attorneys general had no evidence it misled consumers about its platforms' alleged addictiveness, including in congressional testimony by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. The Menlo Park, California-based company said this was because "social media addiction" is not an established psychiatric condition, and therefore statements that its platforms are not addictive could not be false. Meta also said it didn't violate the children's online privacy law because it directed Facebook and Instagram to a general audience, not just children under age 13. In a 38-page decision, Gonzalez Rogers found material factual disputes over whether Meta's social media platforms are addictive, whether Meta falsely denied it designed them that way, and whether it "partially" directed the platforms at children. "The AGs present a reasonable interpretation of [Meta's] statements that Facebook and Instagram are not designed in ways that cause teens to compulsively use the platforms to their detriment," the judge wrote. "To the extent plaintiffs' evidence shows that the platforms are in fact designed to do just that, a jury could reasonably find the statements were untrue to a reasonable person," she added. A trial over California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey's claims against Meta is scheduled for August 18, court records show. Further reading: Will Social Media Change After YouTube and Meta's Court Defeat?

Ars Technica

Ithaca's king defies the gods in final The Odyssey trailer

"You gods don't speak in ways we understand."

01 Jul 2026 4:58pm GMT

29 Jun 2026

OSnews

Microsoft now says 8GB RAM is fine for Windows 11, after years of pushing for 16GB

There's something poetic about the World Cup taking place in North America while Microsoft keeps scoring own goals like this. Microsoft updated its Surface buying guide to describe 8GB RAM as "great for everyday use like browsing, streaming, schoolwork, and productivity apps." A companion FAQ adds that 16GB or more is what unlocks Copilot+ PC features. No acknowledgment that, for two years, Microsoft was the loudest voice telling everyone that 16GB was non-negotiable for a good Windows 11 experience. What makes this infuriating is that Microsoft is one of the biggest reasons why the RAM situation got so bad in the first place. ↫ Abhijith M B at Windows Latest This industry is a joke.

29 Jun 2026 11:33pm GMT

Astral is a hobby operating system with X.org, Minecraft, and now Wine

Astral is a hobby operating system written in C for 64bit architectures, with a collection of ported software like X.org, fvwm, the xbps package manager, and tons more. I think it's quite a neat system - the code's on GitHub - made even neater by the fact it can run not only Minecraft, but now also has a working port of Wine that can run a few games. A few months ago, I posted about Astral, a hobby OS I have been working on over the years, running Minecraft. Since then, others have gotten modern versions of Minecraft to run as well as Factorio (using a glibc compatible libc). However, while these games are made or packaged in a way that makes it easier to get them to run under a new OS, most games are not. A lot of games are closed source and compiled for Windows, which makes something like Wine a necessity for playing them. One of my favorite games, Cogmind, falls under that umbrella. It is a 32-bit Windows only roguelike, and it became my goal to run it under Astral. While there was already an existing Wine port, it was extremely incomplete, as not even notepad.exe worked properly. To run Cogmind, the Wine port had to be finished, which also meant adding the ability to run 32-bit code on an otherwise 64-bit-only OS. ↫ Blog post on the Astral website This process obviously is quite involved, but in the end, they managed to get it working. Quite impressive.

29 Jun 2026 8:19pm GMT

The ‘papers, please’ era of the internet will decimate your privacy

Imagine your favorite team just scored an incredible, last-second goal at the World Cup. So you log online to celebrate with other fans. But, using data it's already collected on you, the social media platform you like to post on wrongly guesses that you're under 16 so it forces you to go to a third-party verification app and provide images of your face or your government-issued ID. You don't really know much about the verification app, what country it's based out of, what happens with your information, and whether you're protected from hackers or data breaches. You're not happy about it, but you hand over a photo of your passport and hope it doesn't come back to haunt you. Now imagine that instead of posting about sports, you're criticizing a powerful politician, or talking about your experiences with abuse or addiction, or discussing embarrassing medical issues you're facing. Suddenly this "papers, please" approach to the internet sounds even more invasive, right? Unfortunately, that's the direction we're all headed - even here in the United States - and we have good reason to be wary of the global rush to sacrifice user privacy on the altar of age verification. ↫ Sarah McLaughlin at Expression The insane push for age verification on the internet is the biggest threat to whatever's left of the free internet. I have two young children - 3 and 5, currently - and I'm diametrically opposed to any kind of creepy verification processes that they claim are designed to keep kids like mine "safe". Not only is their safety not predicated on giving up their privacy, my children are also not my or anyone else's property; they have rights, and the right to privacy is one of them. Nobody mentioned in the Epstein files has been charged, by the way.

29 Jun 2026 8:03pm GMT