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Source: Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing, question by Senator Ron Wyden.

Clip by Headquarters News.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57043049

Young New Zealanders, Aussies, and North Americans are less happy than 15 years ago, despite increased happiness in under 25s across most of the world, according to The World Happiness Report 2026. The timing of this drop correlates with increased social media use; however, other countries don't follow this pattern, and Latin American countries have both higher social media use and relatively high levels of youth happiness. While noting that social media's effects on wellbeing are complex and may vary with the types of social platforms involved, the report concludes that heavy use may play a role in the decreased happiness of under 25s in English-speaking countries, especially for girls.

https://archive.is/2ONdw

An AI agent went rogue at Meta, exposing sensitive company and user data to employees who did not have permission to access it.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57002935

The Trump administration is on its way to creating every authoritarian’s dream: a centralized database containing intimate details about every resident of this country, fully searchable by artificial intelligence. This powerful tool would empower the government to conduct previously unimagined levels of surveillance and harassment against its own people.

Freedom of the Press Foundation is suing the administration for documents behind the database. We know that this isn’t just something that the Trump administration would exploit; once built, it’s unlikely any administration could resist the urge to weaponize our personal information.

This nightmare privacy scenario began one year ago, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order that expanded data sharing across the federal government. The administration touted the order, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” as a way to target fraud within a supposedly bloated government.

The order was no such thing.

If you’ve ever thought about building a high-capacity battery pack, the question “how many 18650 batteries are needed for 100Ah?” inevitably comes up. It sounds simple—just divide 100Ah by the capacity of a single cell—but anyone who has tried this in practice knows it’s more complex. Voltage, series and parallel connections, chemistry differences, and safety considerations all play a role.

Understanding 18650 Batteries and Their Capacity The 18650 lithium-ion battery is a standard cell, about 18mm in diameter and 65mm long, usually rated at 3.6V–3.7V, with capacities ranging from 1500mAh to 3500mAh.

For instance, a 2500mAh cell can supply 2.5A for an hour, or 1.25A for two hours.

That’s the nominal figure. Real-world performance depends on temperature, age, and discharge rate, so calculating a 100Ah pack is never just a straight division.

Series vs Parallel connections in 18650 battery packs Series vs Parallel Connections This is where the design gets interesting. Series connections boost voltage, while parallel connections increase capacity:

Series (S): Connect cells end-to-end; voltage adds up. For example, three 3.7V cells in series give 11.1V nominal. Parallel (P): Connect cells side-by-side; capacity adds up. Ten 2.5Ah cells in parallel = 25Ah at 3.7V. The total number of cells = Series × Parallel.

Notice the subtlety: achieving 100Ah isn’t just about capacity. Voltage requirements determine series count, which then shapes total hardware needs.

Step-by-Step Example: 12V / 100Ah Pack Let’s assume you want 12V / 100Ah battery pack using 3.7V, 2500mAh cells:

Series count (S): 12 ÷ 3.7 ≈ 3 → 3 cells in series (3S). Parallel count (P): 100 ÷ 2.5 = 40 → 40 cells in parallel (40P). Total cells: 3 × 40 = 120 cells. Here’s the thought process in action: first voltage, then capacity, finally total cells. This layered thinking is what separates theoretical calculation from practical design.

How Different Cells Change the Calculation Cell Spec Pack Voltage Series (S) Parallel (P) Total Cells 3.7V / 2500mAh 12V 3 40 120 3.7V / 3000mAh 12V 3 34 102 3.7V / 3500mAh 12V 3 29 87 3.2V / 1500mAh LiFePO₄ 12V 4 67 268 Even small changes in capacity or chemistry can shift total cell count significantly. Relying solely on Ah numbers can be misleading.

Practical Considerations Cell Consistency: Cells should have similar capacity, chemistry, and internal resistance. A single weak cell can drag down the whole pack. Battery Management System (BMS): Vital for monitoring voltage, temperature, and charge/discharge balance. Protects against overcharging and overdischarging. Safety: Large parallel packs require proper fuses, wiring, and thermal management. Capacity Margin: Aging, heat, and actual load may reduce usable Ah, so slightly exceeding 100Ah in design is wise. Key Takeaways A 12V, 100Ah pack using 2500mAh cells generally requires about 120 cells. Higher-capacity cells reduce total cell count; lower-capacity or different chemistry cells may more than double it. The process is layered: determine voltage first, capacity second, safety and real-world adjustments third. This approach ensures that your battery pack not only meets the 100Ah target but also performs reliably under real conditions.

Firefox’s free VPN will offer 50 gigabytes of monthly data, which is pretty generous for a browser-based VPN. A Mozilla account is required to make use of it, which isn’t a hardship (they’re free), but is a point of friction some may wish to know upfront.

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Although facial recognition may offer real benefits for blind and visually impaired users, Meta’s history of failing to protect user privacy raises serious questions about its plan to deploy this technology in its smart glasses. Smart glasses — often indistinguishable from regular glasses — are designed to be worn throughout the day as its user passes hundreds, if not thousands, of people. In a single day, the user could scan thousands of faces, with no practical way for a bystander to consent or even know about such real-time identification.

Despite abandoning facial recognition technology across its platforms in 2021 over ethical concerns, Meta is reportedly yet again working to deploy this privacy-invasive technology. An internal memo revealed Meta intends to release this technology during the current dynamic political environment to avoid public scrutiny.

All 20 users are going to be severely disappointed.

Can't wait for the guide that turns my Xbox into a Steam Machine!

• Firefox 149 is adding a built-in free VPN starting from March 24
• It has a cap of 50GB of monthly data in the US, UK, Germany, France to start
• Mozilla is also rolling out a set of new tools to boost productivity

Allow me to spread the word about ListenBrainz , the occasion being that ListenBrainz is about to hit 100.000 users.

ListenBrainz is a FOSS project that aims to crowdsource listening data and release it under an open license. Basically it’s Last.fm but better. Whatever you use to listen to music, you can probably link it up with ListenBrainz. For instance you can connect Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Last.fm . You can link it up with loads of music players . If you’ve kept track of your what music you’ve listened to up to this point, don’t worry, there are several ways to import them into ListenBrainz.

All ListenBrainz listening data is available for all to use. This means that we don't need to rely on big companies like Spotify for recommendation algorithms. We can use whatever algorithm suits us best. All sorts of other services could be build to make use of the ListenBrainz data set. The dataset can also help analyze other services' algorithms, for instance the Fair MusE project uses LB-data and LB-users to investigate the fairness of different music service algorithms.

Obviously ListenBrainz initially suffered from being a comparatively small service, For good recommendations you need loads of data. But it's growing every day and I feel like the 1 billion listens is an impressive milestone. And ListenBrainz has the advantage of having listening data from several services, Spotify could never recommend you music that's not on Spotify. ListenBrainz, because it's open, doesn't have such inherent blindspots.

I am not working for ListenBrainz in any way, I just really like this project as well as MusicBrainz , and I like to spread the word. I think the aims of the ListenBrainz probably align with some Fediverse-folks. If you don't care about the service itself, you could still link up to support FOSS music services, not only LB itself, but other services that are, can and will be built using LB's data. If you use another service to store your own listening data, for instance Last.fm, you could use ListenBrainz as a backup for you data in case the other sevice ever enshittifies. Note: you shouldn't sign up if you want your listening data to be private, that's not what LB is for. I care very much about privacy, but in the case of LB I consciously choose to share my music listening data with others for my own benefit.

Curious to hear peoples thought on all this.

P.S. I have posted about LB over a year ago. I don't intend to spam this service, but i feel like it could be useful for folks on here, and I think most of you folks would support the spreading of FOSS. And LBs usercount rising from 36k january last year to 100k now seemed like a good celebratory occasion to spread the love once more.

• “Cloud First”: To move federal agencies to the cloud, the government created a program known as FedRAMP, whose job was to ensure the security of new technology.
• Security Breakdown: ProPublica found that FedRAMP authorized a Microsoft product called GCC High to handle sensitive government data, despite years of concerns about its security.
• Potential Conflict of Interest: The government relies, in part, on third-party firms to vet cloud technology, but those firms are hired and paid by the company being assessed.

“The shortage stems from a lack of wafer capacity, and securing additional wafers takes at least four to five years,” he said. “We expect the industry-wide supply shortfall to persist at over 20 percent through 2030.”

Altman’s remarks in his tweet drew an overwhelmingly negative reaction.

“You’re welcome,” one user responded. “Nice to know that our reward is our jobs being taken away.”

Others called him a “f***ing psychopath” and “scum.”

“Nothing says ‘you’re being replaced’ quite like a heartfelt thank you from the guy doing the replacing,” one user wrote.