Category Archives: News

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Built-in ChatGPT-driven Copilot will transform Windows 11 starting in June

Source: Ars Technica

Article note: The hype cycle is fully out of control. Always on, connected, data harvesting, AI enabled ...Clippy.
Windows Copilot is an AI-assisted feature coming to Windows 11 preview builds starting in June.

Enlarge / Windows Copilot is an AI-assisted feature coming to Windows 11 preview builds starting in June. (credit: Microsoft)

A couple of months ago, Microsoft added generative AI features to Windows 11 in the form of a taskbar-mounted version of the Bing chatbot. Starting this summer, the company will be going even further, adding a new ChatGPT-driven Copilot feature that can be used alongside your other Windows apps. The company announced the change at its Build developer conference alongside another new batch of Windows 11 updates due later this year. Windows Copilot will be available to Windows Insiders starting in June.

Like the Microsoft 365 Copilot, Windows Copilot is a separate window that opens up along the right side of your screen and assists with various tasks based on what you ask it to do. A Microsoft demo video shows Copilot changing Windows settings, rearranging windows with Snap Layouts, summarizing and rewriting documents that were dragged into it, and opening apps like Spotify, Adobe Express, and Teams. Copilot is launched with a dedicated button on the taskbar.

"Once open, the Windows Copilot side bar stays consistent across your apps, programs and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant. It makes every user a power user, helping you take action, customize your settings, and seamlessly connect across your favorite apps," wrote Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay.

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[Approved] Plasma 6 Proposal: incubate SDDM (#91) · Issues · Plasma / Plasma Desktop · GitLab

Source: Published articles

Article note: Woo! SDDM is great, but hasn't had a release in like 4 years, despite major patches in git (like... working Wayland support major). Sending some resources their way would be awesome.
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FBI abused spy law but only like 280,000 times in a year

Source: The Register

Article note: This is ...more or less exactly what everyone said would happen.

Well, well, well, if it isn't the Leaning Tower of FISA again

The FBI misused controversial surveillance powers more than 278,000 times between 2020 and early 2021 to conduct warrantless searches on George Floyd protesters, January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol, and donors to a Congressional campaign, according to a newly unclassified court opinion.…

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Envisioning a Simplified Intel Architecture

Source: Hacker News

Article note: A new legacy-free x86_64 bring-up path gets talked about from time to time, but I hadn't seen any public work from Intel/AMD. This is a fleshed-out proposal that I could easily see going into production in the near future. (The presser also contains an amusing amount of passive-voice retcon about how things came to be the way they are).
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CodeWeavers Now Controlled by an Employee Ownership Trust

Source: Hacker News

Article note: That's pretty cool. In addition to other things, these are the people doing most of the Wine/Proton work, and having them be in a state less prone to private equity whims is a good thing. It looks like a much weaker form of employee ownership than a CoOp or something, but still leagues better than what usually happens these days.
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Disney’s absurdly expensive Star Wars hotel is shutting down

Source: The Verge - All Posts

Article note: I actually thought the concept was _super_ cool (a human-scale closed Starship for days-long RP) but uh... yeah it was niche and _absurdly_ expensive.
An image showing the inside of Disney’s Galactic Starcruiser experience
Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

Disney World is shutting down the Galactic Starcruiser, the immersive Star Wars-themed hotel that costs around $5,000 for a two-night stay. In an update on Disney’s website, the company says the Starcruiser will host its final guests from September 28th to the 30th.

“We are so proud of all of the Cast Members and Imagineers who brought Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to life and look forward to delivering an excellent experience for Guests during the remaining voyages over the coming months,” Disney’s update says. “Thank you to our Guests and fans for making this experience so special.”

Disney’s Galatic Starcruiser hasn’t been around for long, as it only first opened its doors to guests in March 2022. The lavish hotel is modeled after...

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SpaceTop, an innovative laptop without a screen

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Progress toward gibsonian decks (particularly the description from Idoru). My desire for _decades_ from HMDs has been "Comfortable for extended text manipulation" and no one has delivered, but maybe it's finally happening.
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Beepberry is a Blackberry keyboard tinker toy from the founder of Pebble

Source: The Verge - All Posts

Article note: This looks like a ridiculous amount of fun that I don't have time for right now.
Beepberry device in between a banana and apple
The ‘Beepberry’ with other fruits accompanying it. | Image: SQFMI

Are you a hacker who happens to miss their Blackberry? Looks like there’s a new product that’s just your speed: the “Beepberry.” It literally grafts the keyboard of a Blackberry Classic onto a pocketable custom board designed to fit a Raspberry Pi Zero W, all paired with a 400 x 240 “Memory LCD” screen that looks like it was ripped from an old graphing calculator — but is a bit more sophisticated.

Beepberry is designed by Eric Migicovsky, founder of the gone-but-not-forgotten Pebble smartwatch and more relevantly co-founder of Beeper: the hacky all-in-one messenging app that stuffs every service from WhatsApp to iMessage (using a jailbroken iPhone) into one place.

I’m excited to introduce a little side project I’ve been working on:...

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OpenAI chief goes before US Congress to propose licenses for building AI

Source: Hacker News

Article note: Oh boy, attempting regulatory capture on the current dangerous-only-because-humans-are-dumb-panicky-dangerous-animals hypetrain. That sure is a bad look.
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The Babylon 5 animated movie is B5: The Road Home, and here’s what it’s about

Source: The Verge - All Posts

Article note: There have been plenty of disappointments for B5 followups (...both because some didn't come to fruition and because some probably shouldn't have), this sounds both promising and credible.
Image: Warner Bros. Animation

Babylon 5 is coming back as an animated movie, series creator J. Michael Straczynski revealed last week, and today The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive on what it’s about: Sheridan traveling through the multiverse in search of a way home.

The basic synopsis, via THR:

“Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe.”

As Straczynski hinted, many of the original surviving cast members are returning, including Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan), Claudia Christian...

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