Category: Tech

A Falcon 9 rocket launched four astronauts safely into orbit on Friday evening, marking the official beginning of the Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station. Although any crew launch into orbit is notable, this mission comes with an added bit of importance as its success clears the way for two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to finally return home from space after a saga spanning nine months. Friday’s launch came two days after an initial attempt was scrubbed on Wednesday evening. This was due to a hydraulic issue with the ground systems that handle the Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A in Florida. Read full article Comments

Since Amazon announced plans for a generative AI version of Alexa, we were concerned about user privacy. With Alexa+ rolling out to Amazon Echo devices in the coming weeks, we’re getting a clearer view at the privacy concessions people will have to make to maximize usage of the AI voice assistant and avoid bricking functionality of already-purchased devices. In an email sent to customers today, Amazon said that Echo users will no longer be able to set their devices to process Alexa requests locally and, therefore, avoid sending voice recordings to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon apparently sent the email to users with “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” enabled on their Echo. Starting on March 28, recordings of everything spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud. Attempting to rationalize the change, Amazon’s email said: Read full article Comments

For nearly two decades, TNW Conference has been a launchpad for the next big things in tech. The likes of Slack, Wise, Bolt, and Trello all made their mark on our stage before becoming global brands. Visionary leaders from Google, Meta, and Reddit have joined them to share the strategies behind their success, while star speakers Edward Snowden, will.i.am, and Lila Ibrahim have explored the frontiers of innovation.  On June 19-20, we will return to the iconic NDSM venue in Amsterdam with a renewed focus on our founding mission: elevating the startups and scaleups that will change the world. Today,… This story continues at The Next Web

Edge Impulse, a TNW community member that produces an AI platform for developers, has been acquired by American chip giant Qualcomm for an undisclosed sum.  Qualcomm said it had bought Edge Impulse to boost its machine learning software capabilities, particularly for its Dragonwing line of AI-powered chips.  Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm’s head of IoT, said the acquisition would strengthen his firm’s “leadership in AI” and bolster “critical sectors such as retail, security, energy and utilities, supply chain management, and asset management.” Under the deal, Edge Impulse will integrate its operations with Qualcomm’s, but maintain its own offices, employees, and website.     “Our team… This story continues at The Next Web

Test your Drupal website with Cypress cobadger Wed, 04/26/2023 – 03:00 If you don’t include tests in your Drupal development, chances are it’s because you think it adds complexity and expense without benefit. Cypress is an open source tool with many benefits: Reliably tests anything that runs in a web browser Works on any web platform (it’s great for testing projects using front-end technologies like React) Highly extensible Increasingly popular Easy to learn and implement Protects against regression as your projects become more complex Can make your development process more efficient This article covers three topics to help you start testing your Drupal project using Cypress: Installing Cypress Writing and running basic tests using Cypress Customizing Cypress for Drupal Install Cypress For the purposes of this tutorial I’m assuming that you have built a local dev environment for your Drupal project using the `drupal/recommended-project` project. Although details on creating such a project are outside of the scope of this piece, I recommend Getting Started with Lando and Drupal 9. Your project has at least this basic structure: vendor/ web/ .editorconfig .gitattributes composer.json composer.lock The cypress.io site has complete installation instructions for various environments. For this article, I installed Cypress using npm. Initialize your project using the command npm init. Answer the questions that Node.js asks you, and then you will have a package.json file that looks something like this: { “name”: “cypress”, “version”: “1.0.0”, “description”: “Installs Cypress in a test project.”, “main”: “index.js”, “scripts”: { “test”: “echo “Error: no test specified” && exit 1″ }, “author”: “”, “license”: “ISC” } Install Cypress in your project: $ npm install cypress –save-dev Run Cypress for the first time: $ npx cypress open Because you haven’t added a config or any scaffolding files to Cypress, the Cypress app displays the welcome screen to help you configure the project. To configure your project for E2E (end-to-end) testing, click the Not Configured button for E2E Testing. Cypress adds some files to

What’s new in GNOME 44? Jim Hall Tue, 04/25/2023 – 03:00 I use GNOME as my primary desktop environment on my Linux PC at home. GNOME gives me an easy-to-use graphical desktop that provides the flexibility I need yet doesn’t get in my way when I focus on my work. GNOME recently released GNOME 44 with a bunch of new features. I reached out to the GNOME team to ask about the latest version and what was in it. Here’s what team members Caroline Henriksen (brand manager), Matthias Clasen (GNOME developer and release team member), and Allan Day (design team) had to share. New GNOME features Jim Hall: What are some of the new and updated features in GNOME 44 that you’re most excited about? GNOME Team: I am very excited to see how fresh and modern our user interfaces look. Not just in the core apps like Files (the file manager, Nautilus) but also in our Settings, which have seen a lot of work in the last cycle—many Settings panels have been improved. If you have a chance, you should try the new Mouse & Touchpad panel and enjoy the animated illustrations. There’s a lot to like in GNOME 44. For example, I think that a lot of people are going to be really happy about the new grid view in the file chooser, as well as being able to easily connect devices from the new Bluetooth menu in the quick settings. Jim: The release notes mention GNOME Circle and that a few new apps have been added. What is GNOME Circle? Team: GNOME Circle is a collection of fantastic apps that use the GNOME platform. It’s GNOME’s way of promoting the best apps that use our technologies and supporting app developers. To be included in GNOME Circle, an app has to meet a set of requirements. Once it does, the developers get things like extra publicity and GNOME Foundation membership. That, in turn

There’s not much new in Apple’s latest refresh of the iPad Air, so there’s not much to say about it, but it’s worth taking a brief look regardless. In almost every way, this is identical to the previous generation. There are only two differences to go over: the bump from the M2 chip to the slightly faster M3, and a redesign of the Magic Keyboard peripheral. If you want more details about this tablet, refer to our M2 iPad Air review from last year. Everything we said then applies now. Read full article Comments

The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong were not responsible for the murders of millions of people, but rather public sector workers were.

The US has now recorded over 300 measles cases just three months into 2025, exceeding the yearly case counts for all years after 2019. The bulk of this year’s cases are from an outbreak that erupted in an undervaccinated county in West Texas in late January, which has since spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma. As of the afternoon of March 14, Texas reports 259 cases across 11 counties, 34 hospitalizations, and one death, which occurred in an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl. New Mexico reports 35 cases across two counties, two hospitalizations, and one death. That death occurred in an unvaccinated adult who did not seek medical treatment and tested positive for the virus posthumously. The cause of death is still under investigation. Oklahoma reports two probable cases linked to the outbreak. In addition to Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, 12 other states have reported at least one confirmed measles case since the start of the year: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year has seen three measles outbreaks, defined as three or more related cases. Read full article Comments

Baby Elon Musk. Shrimp Jesus. The Titanic colliding with an iceberg lettuce. Social media is saturated with AI slop — low-quality, often ridiculous and sometimes disturbing images, videos, or words created using generative artificial intelligence.  While some AI slop is glaringly fake, a lot isn’t. I remember the first time AI hoodwinked me. It was a striking video I saw on Instagram of a pair of snowy owls in the Arctic with a brood of six little chicks. Amazed by the scene, I instantly shared it with my wife. Her response was: “Surely that can’t be real?!”  It wasn’t. A… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Instagram

A new startup called Skylark has taken flight today — with TNW lending an extra set of wings. The company launches with a central mission: empowering non-technical founders to quickly create high-quality Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). To bring their plans to life, Skylark has created an AI-enhanced framework that promises rapid, efficient iteration cycles. Freelance developers apply the framework to build the MVP. While they code, Skylark’s internal team handles the client acquisition. Every solution is customised for the founder’s objectives. By drawing from a pool of freelancers, Skylark can then find developers that fit each project’s specific needs.  The… This story continues at The Next Web

How I used guilt as a motivator for good its-surya Fri, 04/28/2023 – 03:00 Recently, I was asked by a friend and colleague if I were interested in speaking together at a conference. I was pleasantly surprised because I hadn’t contributed much to the project they were presenting, but I expressed interest. We met to discuss the presentation, and that’s when I learned the real reason I was asked to participate: The conference’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives required there to be at least one speaker that does not identify as a man. I was offended; it felt like I was approached only because of my gender, not based on merit. My friend assured me that wasn’t the only reason I’d been asked. They needed new contributors to the project because there was a lot of work to be done, and they were hoping I could help fill that gap. [ Want to create your own event? Read the 10-step guide for a successful hackathon ] I gave it some thought and tried to understand why the DEI initiatives were in place.  I also thought about the other side of the coin, where the people who wanted to present couldn’t, unless they found someone from a minority group to present alongside them. As I thought about the bigger picture and the benefits this opportunity would bring to me, I decided to forego my ego being hurt. Once I let go of feeling offended, I realized that I was also feeling very uncomfortable presenting something that I hadn’t contributed directly to. My ethics didn’t agree with that. How could I possibly step onto a stage and act as the face of something I hadn’t worked on? Resolving to help more I did some research on the project. The technology was not totally alien to me, and I had a good grasp of the fundamentals it was trying to achieve. In fact, its overall goal made me

3 key open source challenges in developing countries Ahmed Sobeh Thu, 04/27/2023 – 03:00 When I go back home and talk to people in the tech industry, or any other industry for that matter, about what I do and the topics I’m involved in daily, I’m usually met with bemusement at the idea of an Open Source Programs Office (OSPO). The concept of a company contributing to an open source project without obvious immediate financial benefit can be culturally strange to understand or explain. As someone born and raised in a country that has been trying to develop for quite some time, I understand and relate to that. There was a point in time when my only understanding of open source was that it was software that I could use without paying and without needing to wait for a specific issue or additional feature to be released. I could just do whatever I needed myself, locally. Open source faces many struggles in developing countries that make how it’s perceived and its associations inaccurate and out of touch. I will discuss these struggles in this article. Open source challenges in developing countries The challenges that open source faces in these regions can be divided into three main areas: Society and culture Resources and infrastructure Governance Society and culture It’s no secret that the culture of tech in general, and specifically the open source part of it, feeds off the culture of the society where it exists. That’s why, in today’s world, open source has a better chance of being sustained and maintained in the more developed parts of the world. But imagine a perfect society, optimal for open source to grow, be sustained, and maintained. What does the culture of that society look like? What are its main characteristics? Open and transparent For open source to thrive, the society’s culture must be as open and transparent as possible. Information must be freely and publicly accessible, which

Run a virtual conference using only open source tools mairin Thu, 04/27/2023 – 03:00 The Fedora Design Team discovered that using open source tools to run a virtual conference can be quite effective by hosting the first Creative Freedom Summit in January 2023. In this article, I’ll share some background on the conference, why using open source tools to run it was important to us, and the specific tools and configurations our team used to make it all work. I’ll also talk about what worked well and what will need improvement at our next summit in 2024. What is Creative Freedom Summit? The Creative Freedom Summit was an idea Marie Nordin came up with after reviewing talk submissions for Flock, the annual Fedora users and contributors conference. She received many talk submissions for the August 2022 Flock relating to design and creativity in open source—far more than we could possibly accept. With so many great ideas for open source design-related talks out there, she wondered if there would be space for a separate open source creativity conference focused on creatives who use open source tools to produce their work. Marie brought this idea to the Fedora Design Team in the fall of 2022, and we started planning the conference, which took place January 17-19, 2023. Since it was our first time running a new conference like this, we decided to start with invited speakers based on some of the Flock submissions and our own personal network of open source creatives. Almost every speaker we asked gave a talk, so we didn’t have room to accept submissions. We will need to figure out this next year, so we don’t have an open source CFP (Call for Papers) management tool for that to tell you about yet. Skip to bottom of list More Linux resources Linux commands cheat sheet Advanced Linux commands cheat sheet Free online course: RHEL technical overview Linux networking cheat sheet SELinux cheat sheet