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Dem Sens demand action to stop SpaceX oligarch from turning watchdogs into corporate yes-men

The Trump-blessed DOGE unit could help its boss Elon Musk avoid more than $2.37 billion in potential legal liabilities by stripping power from the regulators tasked with supervising the billionaire's businesses. …

The sale of bankrupt DNA data bank 23andMe is delayed as the company struggles to secure a lead bidder who can meet regulatory and privacy requirements, pushing the initial auction deadline from Friday to Monday. Seeking Alpha reports: 23andMe Holdings (OTC:MEHCQ), currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, is requiring that any potential bidders for the company's assets "guaranty that they will comply with the Company's privacy policies and applicable law." The genetics company said this is necessary to protect customers' data. In addition, bidders will need to submit documentation of their intended use of any data, describe the privacy programs and security controls they have in place or would implement, and say whether they would ask for current privacy policies to be amended. 23andMe has also filed a motion asking for the appointment of an independent customer Data representative to review whether a proposed deal is in alignment with the company's privacy policies and data privacy laws.

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As astronomers gripe about sats screwing observations

AST SpaceMobile says it is working with US astronomers and America's National Science Foundation (NSF) to mitigate the impact of satellites on observations, after a prototype became one of the brightest objects in the sky a couple of years back.…

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Here's an easy to understand example of how Donald Trump's tariffs on imported products have completely screwed small U.S. businesses and entrepreneurs: the crowdfunding site Kickstarter is introducing a "Tariff Manager tool" that will allow creators to add extra charges to projects that were already fully funded in order to deal with the higher and unexpected costs of the president's global trade war. "Over the past few weeks, we've been hard at work developing tariff-relevant resources to support our community. From guidance to help creators navigate rapidly changing policies, to tips on shipping logistics, and even information to help backers better understand the challenges creators are facing. Our focus has been supporting you through uncertain times, but we also know that information alone isn't always enough," Kickstarter said in a blog post published last week announcing the Tariff Manager tool. "Built specifically to address the financial challenges posed by U.S. import tariffs, Kickstarter's Tariff Manager is designed to give creators more control, flexibility, and transparency at one of the most critical phases of your journey: fulfillment." Kickstarter's Tariff Manager will allow some creators to apply per-item surcharges which will appear as a separate line item on the payment page for people who backed their project. "We understand that asking backers to pay an additional fee -- especially after a campaign has ended -- can be sensitive," Kickstarter said. "If a backer chooses not to pay the tariff cost during the pledge manager process, they'll need to reach out to you directly." Backers can pay the additional fee to get the item they had already backed in order to still get it when it's ready. If they decline, the creator can issue them a refund, or find "another resolution," the blog post says. "While this tool helps offset rising costs, we recognize that every project and backer relationship is unique," Kickstarter said. "Our goal is to provide you with the flexibility and transparency necessary to navigate those conversations with clarity and care." "Creators continue to launch, adapt, and find success on Kickstarter, even as the external landscape shifts," a Kickstarter spokesperson told 404 Media. "We know creators are navigating a lot right now, and we're focused on giving them the tools and support to adjust as needed. Our role at Kickstarter is to help creators bring their projects to life, and that includes supporting them through moments of uncertainty. That's why we're doubling down on tools that help creators stay flexible and responsive: from our Tariff Manager within our integrated pledge manager -- which we're rolling out to all of our creators soon -- to offering 24-hour support and expanding educational resources."

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But what it can't do is 'unilaterally claw back a community project and its infrastructure, assets, and branding'

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office to prevent Synadia from using the logo and domain for NATS, the open source messaging system.…

Demotion of cyberspace policy team, closure of others, not a great look

The US State Department announced a major reorg this month, and the changes could weaken America's ability to counter China's growing technological influence.…

Huawei is gearing up to test its newest and most powerful AI processor, which the company hopes could replace some higher-end products of U.S. chip giant Nvidia. From a WSJ report: Huawei has approached some Chinese tech companies about testing the technical feasibility of the new chip, called the Ascend 910D, people familiar with the matter said. The company is slated to receive the first batch of samples of the processor as soon as late May, some of the people said. The development is still at an early stage, and a series of tests will be needed to assess the chip's performance and get it ready for customers, the people said. Huawei hopes that the latest iteration of its Ascend AI processors will be more powerful than Nvidia's H100, a popular chip used for AI training that was released in 2022, said one of the people. Previous versions are called 910B and 910C.

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Did we says offshore? We meant, er, hardcore. Amirite, DOGE bros?

Comment IBM – a company understood to employ at least one-third of its global workforce in India and Bangladesh – is pledging to spend $150 billion over the next half decade on making America great again.…

Researchers claiming affiliation with the University of Zurich secretly deployed AI-powered bots in a popular Reddit forum to test whether AI could change users' minds on contentious topics. The unauthorized experiment, which targeted the r/changemyview subreddit, involved bots making over 1,700 comments across several months while adopting fabricated identities including a sexual assault survivor, a Black man opposing Black Lives Matter, and a domestic violence shelter worker. The researchers "personalized" comments by analyzing users' posting histories to infer demographic information. The researchers, who remain anonymous despite inquiries, claimed their bots were "consistently well-received," garnering over 20,000 upvotes and 137 "deltas" -- awards indicating successful opinion changes. Hundreds of bot comments were deleted following the disclosure.

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The OS came first, the foundation later – so what does it do?

Interview Many FOSS projects are backed by nonprofit foundations. One such example is the FreeBSD Foundation, started by Meta software engineer Justin T Gibbs. He spoke with The Register about the project's copyright philosophy, what the foundation does, and why it matters.…

Inventor James Dyson described his career as "a life of failure" in a recent Wall Street Journal interview, citing setbacks as drivers of innovation. The 77-year-old creator of the bagless vacuum cleaner, who built a $16.8 billion fortune according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, created 5,127 prototypes over five years before successfully launching his signature product in 1993. "If something works, it's less challenging, it's less interesting," Dyson said. "If something's gone wrong, you want to know why it's gone wrong, and it's a learning process." Dyson's company abandoned its electric vehicle project in 2019 despite investing over $600 million, concluding it wasn't commercially viable. The prototype now sits prominently at the company's Singapore headquarters. "I had to be pragmatic about it and say it's too risky for us to do, which is a shame because I loved doing it," Dyson said.

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Damning report says it set a moving target that was way too ambitious

The European Chips Act is unlikely to meet its target of hitting a 20 percent share of the global semiconductor market by 2030.…

IBM announced plans to invest $150 billion in the United States over the next five years, with more than $30 billion earmarked specifically for research and development of mainframes and quantum computing technology. The investment follows similar commitments from tech giants including Apple and Nvidia -- each pledging approximately $500 billion -- in the wake of President Trump's election and tariff threats. "We have been focused on American jobs and manufacturing since our founding 114 years ago," said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna in a statement. The company currently manufactures its mainframe systems in upstate New York and plans to continue designing and assembling quantum computers domestically. The announcement comes amid challenging circumstances for IBM, which recently saw 15 government contracts shelved under the Trump administration's cost-cutting initiatives. Further reading: IBM US Cuts May Run Deeper Than Feared - and the Jobs Are Heading To India; IBM Now Has More Employees In India Than In the US (2017).

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Cyberattack? Bad software update? International oopsie? The cause is unclear, but Iberia is dark

A massive power outage has left Spain, Portugal and parts of southern France without electricity, and the cause has yet to be identified.…

Ruby on Rails creator and Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson, makes a case for why Google shouldn't be forced to sell Chrome: First, Chrome won the browser war fair and square by building a better surfboard for the internet. This wasn't some opportune acquisition. This was the result of grand investments, great technical prowess, and markets doing what they're supposed to do: rewarding the best. Besides, we have a million alternatives. Firefox still exists, so does Safari, so does the billion Chromium-based browsers like Brave and Edge. And we finally even have new engines on the way with the Ladybird browser. Look, Google's trillion-dollar business depends on a thriving web that can be searched by Google.com, that can be plastered in AdSense, and that now can feed the wisdom of AI. Thus, Google's incredible work to further the web isn't an act of charity, it's of economic self-interest, and that's why it works. Capitalism doesn't run on benevolence, but incentives. We want an 800-pound gorilla in the web's corner! Because Apple would love nothing better (despite the admirable work to keep up with Chrome by Team Safari) to see the web's capacity as an application platform diminished. As would every other owner of a proprietary application platform. Microsoft fought the web tooth and nail back in the 90s because they knew that a free, open application platform would undermine lock-in -- and it did!

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No more asterisks. Voice typing now reflects the true spirit of your rage

Customer feedback wins – Microsoft is adding a toggle to turn off the Windows 11 profanity filter.…

It took a 1 year+ probe, plenty of client calls for VeriSource to understand just how much of a yikes it has on its hands

Houston-based VeriSource Services' long-running probe into a February 2024 digital break-in shows the data of 4 million people – not just a few hundred thousand as it first claimed - was accessed by an "unknown actor".…

Widespread power outages were reported Monday in parts of Spain, Portugal and France, affecting critical infrastructure like airports and causing transportation disruptions. From a report: "The interruption was due to a problem in the European electricity grid," E-Redes, the national energy supplier of Portugal, said in a statement. In addition to Portugal, it said, "The blackout also affected regions of Spain and France, due to faults in very high voltage lines." E-Redes said that the outage was widespread across Spain, with outages in Catalonia, Andalusia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country, Castile and Leon, Extremadura and Murcia. In France, the Portuguese energy supplier said, "the Basque Coast and the Burgundy region also experienced power cuts." Spain's national power company, Red Electricia, said in a post on X that it had restored some power in the north and south of the peninsula. The cause of the outages was not immediately clear. But the effects of the disruption were felt in cities across the region.

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Image board hints that rumors of a poorly maintained back end may be true

Clearweb cesspit 4chan is back up and running, but says the damage caused by a cyberattack earlier this month was "catastrophic."…

Sales of electric vehicles in America jumped 10.6% in the first three months of 2025 (compared to the same period in 2024), reports Bloomberg. And research provider BloombergNEF expects all of 2025 will see a 31.5% sales increase from 2024's sales in the U:S. — slightly above the global increase rate of 30%. (That's 22 million battery-powered vehicles around the world.) "EV adoption is cruising along in the U.S.," Bloomberg writes, with interest "spreading from early-adopters to mainstream consumers" tired of paying for gas and oil changes — and attracted by new products from familiar brands: Of the 63 or so fully electric cars and trucks on the U.S. market, one quarter weren't available a year ago. The product blitz includes the first EV offerings from Acura, Dodge and Jeep, second models from Mini and Porsche and two more battery-powered machines each from Cadillac and Volvo... Many of the new EVs are relatively affordable. Cox Automotive estimates the price spread between EVs broadly and internal combustion cars and trucks has shrunk to just $5,000. General Motors, meanwhile, plans to resurrect its Chevrolet Bolt later this year with a price point around $30,000...

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