18 Aug 2026
Slashdot
Cursor Launches 'Origin' Code Hosting Platform As GitHub Alternative
Cursor has launched Origin, a GitHub-style code hosting platform built directly into its AI coding environment. The company is initially positioning Origin as a low-risk layer on top of GitHub, keeping GitHub as the "source of truth," but the launch landed just as a major GitHub outage highlighted growing concerns about reliability in the age of AI-generated code. VentureBeat reports: Cursor began rolling out Origin, its own code hosting platform, to paid users on Monday morning. Roughly three and a half hours later, GitHub's status page lit up with what became a six-hour-and-forty-two-minute global degradation -- error rates near 20% across pull requests, issues and the API, and near 50% on archive and raw file downloads, according to GitHub's incident log. Enterprise single sign-on went down with it: SAML, OIDC, SCIM provisioning and Team Sync all failed. So did Copilot. The developer internet did what the developer internet does. "You can now host your repos in Cursor Origin and deploy to Vercel via Cursor Origin which is itself hosted on Vercel," Vercel chief executive Guillermo Rauch posted on X. "And unlike GitHub, it's online [smile emoji]" Asked why he was smiling, Rauch replied: "trying to make light of the situation. We ourselves are stuck because of github rn!" Matt Palmer, who works at Cursor, quote-tweeted his own company's launch with the day's best line: "We were going to ship this earlier, but GitHub was down." A GitHub outage, in other words, delayed the launch of a GitHub competitor. Product launches get locked weeks in advance, and no evidence suggests Cursor timed this one. But the coincidence did the company an enormous favor, because it dramatized the argument Origin exists to make. For eighteen years, choosing where to host your team's source code has been the least interesting decision an engineering organization makes. Cursor is betting that AI agents have made it interesting again -- and for technical decision makers, that is the real news here. Not a new product, but a new procurement question with a governance problem attached.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
18 Aug 2026 11:00pm GMT
Linuxiac
COSMIC Desktop 1.6 Released with Per-App Sound Controls, Compositor Improvements

COSMIC Desktop 1.6 adds per-application sound controls, compositor protocol improvements, terminal enhancements, and fixes across core desktop components.
18 Aug 2026 10:29pm GMT
Hacker News
Programmable Property-Based Testing
18 Aug 2026 10:22pm GMT
AI usage patterns in software teams
18 Aug 2026 10:08pm GMT
GLM-5.3 Artificial Analysis Benchmarks
18 Aug 2026 10:06pm GMT
Slashdot
Comcast Is Turning Millions of Its Routers Into Motion Detectors
Comcast is activating Wi-Fi motion sensing on millions of compatible Xfinity gateways, allowing the routers to detect movement by measuring disruptions in signals between the gateway and connected devices. The free feature, part of Xfinity Shield, can send activity alerts through the Xfinity app and offers Home, Away, and nighttime monitoring modes without requiring separate motion sensors. The Verge reports: Wi-Fi motion sensing is a technology that has been around for a while, but it's only recently that it's become accurate and reliable enough to catch on. Linksys launched a similar service in 2021, but discontinued it a few years later. Lighting company Wiz launched a line of Wi-Fi-sensing smart bulbs in 2023, and more recently Philips Hue deployed a similar radio-frequency sensing technology in its products (using Zigbee rather than Wi-Fi). Comcast's motion sensing pairs with new modes in the Xfinity app -- Home Watch, Away Watch, and Dark Watch (a night/sleep mode) -- allowing you to turn sensing on or off based on your activities.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
18 Aug 2026 10:00pm GMT
Disney, ABC Sue FCC Over Threats to Broadcast Licenses
Disney and ABC are suing the FCC to block an early review of eight station licenses, arguing the Trump administration is using the agency's regulatory power to punish the network over programming and editorial decisions it dislikes. Reuters reports: In a lawsuit (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Disney said the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against "a network that refuses to bow to the administration's demands," calling the agency's actions an "extraordinary assault on free speech." Trump has waged an aggressive series of attacks on the news media and the latest move follows a two-year-long battle between Trump and Disney. Last month, Trump again called for ABC stations to lose their licenses because the network refused to air a prime-time speech on elections. The court case will pose a key test of the free speech rights of media outlets. Disney and ABC asked the court (PDF) to quickly issue a temporary restraining order halting the license renewal proceedings and preventing the FCC from scheduling a hearing. The company said the public comment period ended earlier this month and the FCC could act at any time. The lawsuit alleges that the administration is violating the company's First Amendment free speech rights, saying that the FCC "is using its regulatory power to retaliate against (Disney and ABC) for programming and editorial decisions the administration dislikes." The FCC said the move stemmed from a year-long investigation into whether Disney's diversity policies amounted to unlawful discrimination, an allegation the company denies. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an order on Tuesday directing the company and the FCC to propose a schedule for considering the request for a temporary restraining order and told the agency to notify her if it moves to start the process of revoking the ABC licenses.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
18 Aug 2026 9:00pm GMT
Ars Technica
Against all odds, SpaceX finally tugs Starship into port after 24 days at sea
"A team of SpaceX engineers is on their way to conduct additional analysis on the vehicle."
18 Aug 2026 7:01pm GMT
Disney sues FCC and its chair, escalating fight against Trump's chief censor
FCC demands "total capitulation" in Trump censorship campaign, Disney suit says.
18 Aug 2026 6:11pm GMT
Linuxiac
Thunderbird 154 Lands with Microsoft Graph Support, Better Desktop Integration

Mozilla Thunderbird 154 is now available with optional system tray support, Microsoft Graph integration, improved search behavior, and more.
18 Aug 2026 5:25pm GMT
Ars Technica
Peacock raises prices by 18 percent after becoming profitable
Peacock's quarterly profitability isn't guaranteed.
18 Aug 2026 4:42pm GMT
Linuxiac
VirtualBox 7.2.16 Adds Linux FRED Support, Improves Wayland Clipboard

VirtualBox 7.2.16 is out with Linux FRED support, better Wayland shared clipboard handling, RHEL 9.8 fixes, and improved VMSVGA 3D performance.
18 Aug 2026 4:37pm GMT