Science and Technology (old posts, page 240)
Security updates for Thursday
Security updates have been issued by Debian (sslh), Oracle (container-tools:rhel8, gnome-remote-desktop, golang, javapackages-tools:201801, jq, libvpx, libxml2, mpfr, and perl-File-Find-Rule-Perl), Red Hat (glib2, libblockdev, and sudo), Slackware (git), SUSE (avif-tools, containerd, djvulibre, gpg2, helm, kernel, libpoppler-cpp2, libxml2, libxml2-2, openssl-3, perl-YAML-LibYAML, python-cryptography, python-setuptools, python311-pycares, tomcat10, and wireshark), and Ubuntu (djvulibre, git, libyaml-libyaml-perl, and protobuf).
Former reality TV star appointed NASA interim administrator
Can Sean Duffy embrace the challenge?
NASA has a new interim administrator. US President Donald Trump has announced that former reality TV star and current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will be taking on the role.…
Write-back to aging UK health systems lessens benefits of Palantir-based platform
Controversial system requires local NHS investment to maximize productivity
The benefits of the UK health sector's Palantir-powered data and analytics system are being suppressed by the limits of writing back to NHS software, MPs heard this week.…
Write-back to aging UK health systems lessens benefits of Palantir-based platform
Controversial system requires local NHS investment to maximize productivity
The benefits of the UK health sector's Palantir-powered data and analytics system are being suppressed by the limits of writing back to NHS software, MPs heard this week.…
Chinese TV uses AI to translate broadcasts into sign language. It’s not going well
Deaf professor who worked on one product says developers won’t listen to feedback – about their products or their tech bro ways
China’s efforts to employ AI as a means of improving access to media for its deaf population aren’t going well, according to a professor at Beijing Normal University’s Faculty of Education.…
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for July 10, 2025
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition:
- Front: Python packaging; Kernel API specification; Kselftests and KUnit; niri; pedalboard.
- Briefs: Git security fixes; Amarok 3.3; Bash 5.3; Thunderbird 140; tmux-rs; U-Boot 2025.07; Quotes; ...
- Announcements: Newsletters, conferences, security updates, patches, and more.
Amarok 3.3 released
Version 3.3 of the Amarok music player has been released. This is the first release of Amarok based on KDE Frameworks 6 and Qt 6. Amarok 3.3 also includes a major rework of its audio engine to use GStreamer for audio playback.
The reworked audio engine provides unified feature set for all users and should provide a solid and future-proof sonic experience for years to come. Notable improvements have also landed to the database system: improved character set support helps with e.g. emojis in podcast descriptions and other very exotic symbols, date handling has been improved ('year 2038 problem'), and various other potential and actual database-related issues have been fixed.
New upgrade paths for ELevate
The AlmaLinux project has announced new upgrade paths for its ELevate utility, which allows users to upgrade between major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives. The new paths include upgrades from AlmaLinux 9 to AlmaLinux 10 and CentOS Stream 9 to CentOS Stream 10, with support for EPEL, Docker CE, and PostgreSQL third-party package repositories. LWN covered ELevate last year.
Shiny object syndrome spells doom for many AI projects, warns EPA CIO
Chasing the hype without a clear use case? You may crash and burn
US Environmental Protection Agency CIO Carter Farmer has a blunt message for AI hype-chasers: Shiny-object syndrome too often drives teams to leap into AI without defining a clear use case or vetting their data, leaving them to wonder why it doesn't work.…