Technology

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1254266

Users will now see seven-day metrics that track active visitors and contributions instead.

Social media platform accused of failing to filter out obvious key usernames such as ‘coke’, ‘weed’ and ‘molly’

Link without the paywall

https://archive.ph/WsZ92

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4501921

China has exported its village surveillance model to the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, where Chinese police are piloting fingerprint and data collection to curb social unrest, officials and locals confirmed.

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China's "Fengqiao" monitoring model -- started under Mao Zedong in the 1960s to help communities mobilise against reactionary "class enemies" -- has been reinvigorated by Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure stability in local communities.

In the Solomon Islands, a security partner of Beijing, Chinese police have visited several villages this year promoting the Fengqiao concept, familiarising children with surveillance drones by playing games, pictures posted to social media by Solomon Islands police show.

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A community leader in the Solomon Islands, Andrew Nihopara, confirmed to Reuters that the village of Fighter 1 on the fringe of the capital Honiara had begun working with the Chinese police on a Fengqiao pilot, but declined to comment further.

The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force said in a statement this month the Fengqiao model of "grassroots governance" in Fighter 1 would collect population data to improve security.

Chinese police had introduced residents to population management, household registration, community mapping, and the collection of fingerprints and palm prints, the statement said.

“The Fighter One community is the first attempt, and it will be expanded to a larger area across the country in the future,” the statement quoted Chinese police inspector Lin Jiamu as saying, explaining the initiative would enhance safety.

The move has stirred human rights concerns.

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As part of its unprovoked invasion, Russia has been firing massed waves of drones and missiles into Ukraine for years, though the tempo has been raised dramatically in recent months. Barrages of 700-plus drones now regularly attack Ukraine during overnight raids. Russia also appears to have upped the ante dramatically by sending at least 19 drones into Poland last night, some of which were shot down by NATO forces.

Many of these drones are Shahed/Geran types built with technology imported from Iran, and they have recently gained the ability to fly higher, making shootdowns more difficult. Given the low cost of the drones (estimates suggest they cost a few tens of thousands of dollars apiece, and many are simply decoys without warheads), hitting them with multimillion-dollar missiles from traditional air defense batteries makes little sense and would quickly exhaust missile stocks.

So Ukraine has adopted widespread electronic warfare to disrupt control systems and navigation. Drones not forced off their path are fought with mobile anti-aircraft guns, aircraft, and interceptor drones, many launched from mobile fire teams patrolling Ukraine during the night...

The AI Darwin Awards, launched in 2025, celebrates catastrophically poor decisions involving artificial intelligence deployment[^1]. Modeled after the original Darwin Awards that honored fatal human stupidity, this new initiative focuses on spectacular AI failures and the humans who enabled them[^2].

The awards require nominations to demonstrate:

• Direct AI involvement
• Catastrophic potential
• Clear evidence of hubris
• Ethical oversights
• Ambitious scale of failure[^1]

Notable 2025 nominees include:

• Replit's AI agent deleting a company's production database
• Taco Bell's failed AI drive-thru system across 500 locations
• McDonald's chatbot security breach exposing 64 million job applicants' data[^2]

The organizers emphasize that the awards mock human recklessness rather than AI itself, stating "Artificial intelligence is just a tool - like a chainsaw, nuclear reactor, or particularly aggressive blender. It's not the chainsaw's fault when someone decides to juggle it at a dinner party"[^1].

Winners will be selected through public voting, with results announced in February 2026[^6].

[^1]: AI Darwin Awards - Celebrating Spectacularly Bad AI Decisions [^2]: The Register - The nominations for the 2025 AI Darwin Awards are open [^6]: Gizmodo - There's Now a Darwin Awards to Celebrate the Worst AI Fails of 2025

Microsoft announced that, starting today, individual Windows developers will no longer have to pay for publishing their applications on the Microsoft Store.

New data from the UK’s age verification rollout provides hard evidence of what internet governance experts have been warning about for years: these laws don’t protect children—they systematically drive users from regulated, compliant platforms to unregulated, non-compliant ones while accomplishing nothing except creating a massive privacy surveillance apparatus.

Modos debuts an open-source e-paper with a 75-Hz refresh rate

https://spectrum.ieee.org/e-paper-display-modos

Microsoft wants employees back in the office

Showcasing an important alternative to radio-based, high-speed communication.

A $379 point-and-shoot with a USB Mini port — in 2025.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37155283

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