System Admin Stuff

Xbox posts the Forza Horizon 6 launch trailer a week before its Early Access release date — I love this tribute to a beloved racer the series partnered with

2026-05-09T00:57:18.634+05:30

A week ahead of Forza Horizon 6's Early Access release date, Xbox has posted the game's official launch trailer — and it's got some neat references.

source https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/forza/xbox-posts-the-forza-horizon-6-launch-trailer-a-week-before-its-early-access-release-date

These Are The Best Ways to Rid Your Gmail Inbox of Spam

2026-05-09T00:15:28.206+05:30

Gmail does a decent job at filtering junk mail to the Spam folder, but there are always the marketing emails, newsletters, and other mass messages that slip through to your inbox. Maybe you accidentally signed up for a mailing list, or you wanted those promo emails at one point, but now they've become too much. You can keep deleting them one by one—or you can take action to remove spam from certain senders once and for all.

Set up filtering to banish unwanted emails

Filtering is one of our favorite Gmail hacks for moving junk emails straight to the trash. Select the messages in your inbox from as many senders as you want to filter out, click the three-dot menu at the top of the screen, and select Filter messages like these. On the pop-up, click Create filter and check Delete it. Be sure to also check Also apply filter to [X] matching conversations. Future emails from filtered senders will automatically go to Trash.

Filter entire domains instead

If you're still getting emails from a sender you've filtered out, it may be because they're using multiple aliases on the same domain. To solve this, you can set up a filter for an entire domain. Go to Settings > See all settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses and select Create a new filter. Add the domain (@[domain].com) to the "From" field, select Create filter, and check Delete it.

Unsubscribe en masse via 'Manage Subscriptions'

You can unsubscribe from mailing lists by clicking "Unsubscribe" at the bottom of each individual email you receive, but this is both tedious and a potential security risk, as threat actors have been known to hijack these links for malicious purposes. At minimum, opening the email and clicking any link therein confirms that your email address is active and ripe for targeting. Google updated Gmail last year to include a "Manage Subscription" view, which centralizes mailing list and promotional emails in one place with a one-click unsubscribe option. In the left-hand navigation bar, click More > Manage subscriptions, locate the sender, and click Unsubscribe to be removed from that sender's list.

Note that Gmail may not pull all email campaigns into this view—if that's the case for a list you want to unsubscribe from, you can click Unsubscribe at the top of the email itself (next to the sender's address) instead or use the next step to block the sender entirely.

Use the 'Report spam' button ruthlessly

If you find yourself deleting emails from the same senders over and over, report them as spam instead. This helps Gmail to recognize these and similar messages as junk, which over time can reduce how much clutter actually reaches your inbox. Select the email and click the Report spam button at the top of your inbox to move the message to your spam folder. Gmail automatically deletes spam after 30 days.

Block external images to prevent tracking

Marketing emails typically have tracking pixels—invisible 1x1 images used to monitor online activity—embedded that let senders know when you open a message, which is why you should stop opening emails you don't want and use one of the above strategies to filter, delete, or block them instead. To add an extra layer of protection, you can keep external images from loading in emails unless you explicitly allow them. Go to Settings > See all settings. On the General tab, scroll to Images and select Ask before displaying external images.

Keep your email address private and use aliases instead

An obvious way to keep junk from reaching your inbox is to avoid giving out your email address in the first place. You can create a second Gmail account to use solely for subscriptions, shopping, service sign-ups, etc. so any lists you are added to are directed straight to a separate inbox. Gmail also has unlimited aliases via "plus addressing," so you can easily see where spam is coming from. Or you can create burner accounts via "hide my email" services in browsers, password managers, or Apple iCloud.

Chrome's 4GB AI model isn't new, but you're not wrong for being confused

2026-05-09T00:13:17.172+05:30

All of Google's products have been getting more AI features, including Chrome, which now offers split-screen Gemini chatbot support, the ability to automate web browsing, and more. Some desktop Chrome users have also noted that the browser appears to suddenly want more storage space for AI. This is true—Chrome does download a 4GB AI model for on-device processing. It's been doing that for years, though.

Google hasn't actually changed anything about Chrome's on-device AI, but the confusion is understandable, as the company has done a poor job of explaining what it's doing and why. This is, unfortunately, par for the course with Google's AI efforts.

Just this week, someone noticed that Chrome had downloaded a 4GB Gemini Nano model and inferred from its sudden appearance that Google was deploying that AI on all Chrome installs right now. That's not exactly true. Google announced in 2024 that it would begin adding local AI capabilities to Chrome, powering features like Help Me Write, tab organization, and scam detection.

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source https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/05/no-google-hasnt-changed-chromes-local-ai-features-its-just-as-confusing-as-ever/

My Windows 11 backup broke after KB5083769 — Microsoft says this simple fix might save your files

2026-05-08T00:35:42.677+05:30

Windows 11 update KB5083769 may break backups due to blocked drivers. Microsoft says it's not a bug and recommends updating your backup software.

Australia warns of ClickFix attacks pushing Vidar Stealer malware

2026-05-08T00:24:21.001+05:30

The Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC) is warning organizations of an ongoing malware campaign using the ClickFix social engineering technique to distribute the Vidar Stealer info-stealing malware. [...]

source https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/australia-warns-of-clickfix-attacks-pushing-vidar-stealer-malware/

The Most Aesthetic Portable Speaker I Own Is $50 Off Right Now

2026-05-08T00:15:29.082+05:30

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

In my years reviewing speakers, I've learned a couple of things: Reputation and price get me to buy it, but if I dig the look, I'll keep using it over better options. This is what Marshall speakers, in general, nail. They look great while still doing their basic job as a portable speaker well. Right now, the Marshall Emberton III is $129.99 (originally $179.99), its lowest price yet, according to price-tracking tools.

Marshall Emberton III Portable Bluetooth Speakers, Wireless, IP67 Rating Dust & Water Resistant, 32+ Hours Playtime, Quick Charge - Black & Brass

My wife and I have been using the Marshall Emberton III for a few months now, and we love it. The moment she first saw it, she fell in love with the look and wanted to keep it on display on the kitchen counter before she even turned it on. We now use it on our kitchen counter and listen to music while we cook or clean up.

The Emberton III is a portable speaker, so it's designed to be taken outdoors, resist the elements with its waterproof IP67 rating, and play for long sessions with its 32-hour playtime. It does all these things well while looking and feeling premium. The sound it produces is distortion-free, even at max volume, which is surprising for a small portable speaker, and it's loud for its size.

The main downside is that there is no adjustable EQ on its app, but it can't have everything. There are physical controls on top of the speaker to skip songs and pause the media. There is also a battery bar that tells you how much juice you have left. The design is simple yet efficient, and I can't stress enough how much my wife and I love the retro look of the speaker. You can read more about it on ZDNET's review. If you're looking for a fun, good-looking portable speaker you can happily display, get the Marshall Emberton III while it's at its lowest price.

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Anthropic's Claude Managed Agents can now "dream," sort of

2026-05-07T00:13:31.652+05:30

SAN FRANCISCO—At its Code with Claude developers' conference, Anthropic has introduced what it calls "dreaming" to Claude Managed Agents. Dreaming, in this case, is a process of going over recent events and identifying specific things that are worth storing in "memory" to inform future tasks and interactions.

Dreaming is a feature that is currently in research preview and limited to Managed Agents on the Claude Platform. Managed Agents are a higher-level alternative to building directly on the Messages API that Anthropic describes as a "pre-built, configurable agent harness that runs in managed infrastructure." It's intended for situations where you want multiple agents working on a task or project to some end point over several minutes or hours.

Anthropic describes dreaming as a scheduled process, in which sessions and memory stores are reviewed, and specific memories are curated. This is important because context windows are limited for LLMs, and important information can be lost over lengthy projects. On the chat side of things, many models use a process called compaction, whereby lengthy conversations are periodically analyzed, and the models attempt to remove irrelevant information from the context window while keeping what's actually important for the ongoing conversation, project, or task.

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source https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/anthropics-claude-can-now-dream-sort-of/

Reddit Is Blocking Its Mobile Site for Some Users, but There's a Fix

2026-05-06T00:15:12.513+05:30

If you mostly use Reddit on a desktop browser, you probably have no issue jumping from subreddit to subreddit. On mobile, it's a different story: Reddit really wants you to use its mobile app, and it makes that clear with pop-ups whenever you access the site in your browser. If you'd rather not download another app onto your phone, dismissing the pop-ups is easy enough—until it isn't.

That's the situation this week. Some users accessing the Reddit home page or jumping directly to individual posts on the mobile site are running into a new roadblock that stops their browsing in its tracks. Things seem normal when first loading up a thread, but as you start scrolling, a large pop-up appears at the bottom of the page. It shows the Reddit app, with its App Store rating, along with a bolded alert: "Get the app to keep using Reddit." The pop-up says the app lets you "search better, personalize your feed, and never miss an update on your [favorite] communities," all things the mobile site was perfectly capable of too.

Credit: Lifehacker

If you've experienced Reddit's previous mobile app pop-ups, this might not seem like such a big deal. Just dismiss it and move on, right? But there is no (X) here, or any obvious way to clear the pop-up. Plus, it's not just the pop-up—once it appears, the entire page stops responding to inputs.

Why is Reddit blocking its mobile site?

This is the most aggressive I've ever seen Reddit be in pushing people to its mobile app, but I don't quite understand the logic. Why stop users from accessing the mobile site? When Futurism reached out to the company for comment, it said, “We’ve found users who are logged in have a more personalized experience and can more easily find communities that match their interests...So, we’re running a test for a small number of logged-out mobile users that prompts them to download the app after visiting the Reddit site.” The company added that it was also targeting "a small subset of frequent mobile web users" because it feels they are already familiar with how Reddit works and would still have a better experience in the app.

I can attest that the times I've run into this issue, I was indeed logged out of the mobile site. But I didn't even mean to be: I don't typically intentionally browse Reddit on my phone, I just check out links that appear in a Google search. As such, it's wildly frustrating to hit this pop-up when I'm casually looking up the answer to a question. I'm certainly not going to download the Reddit app for those random moments; in fact, this experience makes me even less likely to do so.

Based on the App Store privacy notes, the Reddit app collects a bunch of data points, including purchases, contact info, search history, usage data, location, identifiers, and diagnostics. Sure, it doesn't link most of that data to your identity, save for identifiers and usage data, but still, browsing in something like Safari blocks a lot of that tracking. In short: Thanks but no thanks on the app recommendation, Reddit.

How to get around Reddit's mobile site pop-up

Luckily, you don't have to choose between downloading the app or forgoing using Reddit on your phone, as there are a few workarounds you can try to keep using the mobile site uninterrupted.

Sign in. If Reddit is indeed only targeting users who are logged out, sign in with your account. I just signed in to mine in the browser, and so far, I haven't hit this pop-up again. That's promising.

Clear your cache. If you don't have a Reddit account or you'd rather not sign in, you still have some options. As Futurism notes, some Redditors have found success when clearing their browser's cache and cookies, which might trick Reddit into thinking you're a different user, allowing you to shake off the targeted pop-ups. (We have guides for clearing the cache on both iPhone and Android, if you don't know how.)

Use "Old Reddit." Finally, before I realized the scope of the issue, I was simply switching to "Old Reddit" anytime I ran into the pop-up. Reddit still lets you use its original design, which strips away many of the bloated "new" features—or, in this case, the pop-up that stops you from accessing the mobile site. To switch to this stripped-down interface while using the mobile site, tap the address bar, then replace the "www" in the URL with "old" (e.g. old.reddit.com), without adjusting the rest of the link. The page will open in Reddit's old design, and you'll be free to browse at your leisure—but you'll miss out on the current site's more optimized UI.

Trump SEC lets Musk settle $150 million Twitter lawsuit for $1.5 million

2026-05-06T00:13:19.825+05:30

The Trump administration is letting Elon Musk pay a $1.5 million fine to settle a lawsuit that originally sought at least $150 million. If approved by a federal court, the proposed settlement submitted yesterday would require a trust in Musk's name to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty to the government.

The January 2025 lawsuit, filed in the last days of the Biden administration, relates to how Musk purchased a 9 percent stake in Twitter in 2022 and failed to disclose it within 10 days as required under US law. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that "Musk was able to continue purchasing shares at artificially low prices, allowing him to underpay by at least $150 million for shares he purchased after his beneficial ownership report was due.”

Twitter's stock price soared after Musk belatedly disclosed his stake, and he bought the company outright later in 2022. The Biden SEC's January 2025 lawsuit demanded that Musk "pay disgorgement of his unjust enrichment as a result of his violation," plus interest and a separate civil penalty. But the SEC had investigated the late disclosure and related matters for nearly three years before filing the lawsuit, leaving no time to litigate the case before the Trump administration took over.

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source https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/trump-sec-lets-musk-settle-150-million-twitter-lawsuit-for-1-5-million/

You Might Get Some Money From This PlayStation Store Lawsuit

2026-05-05T00:15:45.386+05:30

If your console of choice is PlayStation and you tend to buy your video games digitally, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you might be entitled to some money thanks to a proposed lawsuit settlement from Sony. The bad news is, it's probably not going to amount to all that much.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Saveri Law Firm announced a class action settlement for a case filed against Sony. The case, which is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, centers on Sony's PlayStation Store: The plaintiffs in the case claim that Sony acted as a monopoly in the sale of its digital games, which drove prices for gamers higher than they should have been on the PlayStation Store. At the core of the argument is Sony's game voucher program, which, prior to 2019, allowed gamers to buy digital game copies from retail stores. The case argues that stores could sell games cheaper than Sony's digital store, but once the company stopped supporting game vouchers, gamers only had the option to pay the higher online prices. Sony, for its part, has denied any wrongdoing in this case, and the court has not found Sony guilty of the allegations.

While Sony is not admitting guilt, it does seem ready to settle. As such, the court has "preliminarily approved" the $7,850,000 settlement. If this settlement is approved during a subsequent hearing, that's the amount Sony will pay to settle the suit for all impacted customers. If you've ever bought a digital game on the PlayStation Store, you could be eligible for a (small) slice of those millions.

How can I check if I'm eligible for the PlayStation Store settlement?

There are a few qualifications that may exclude some customers, but if you're a Sony gamer, I'd bet there's a good chance you'd qualify. According to the suit, anyone who bought at least one digtal game through the PlayStation Store between April 1, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2023 may be entitled. That game needed to have previously had a voucher available in stores, and that voucher must have sold at least 200 copies before April 2019. Finally, the game's price needs to have increased by at least $0.50 after April 2019 compared to the price while the voucher was available. You can see the full list of applicable games here.

If that's confusing, here's the saving grace: If you do qualify, you don't actually need to do anything. The suit says that if you don't act to exclude yourself before July 2, 2026, you will be considered part of the Settlement Class. You can exclude yourself from the settlement if you want, but you must do so before July 2. You'll lose out on the payment, but you'll retain your right to sue Sony if you choose. You can also formally object to the settlement, which grants you the right to speak in person at the Fariness Hearing.

How much you'll get from the PlayStation Store settlement

We don't know exactly how many people will make up the settlement class, so it's tough to say precisely what the payments will be. But since there are likely many gamers who bought the digital games in the list during those select dates, the pool is probably quite large—especially considering you don't have to do anything (or even know about the lawsuit) to get a payout.

Push Square's Sammy Barker has an estimate based on all available data thus far, and it's not too impressive: You're likely to get around $1 to $3 per purchase. If you bought a ton of digital games on your PS4 or PS5, you might be wind up with a decent payout, but if you only bought a handful, don't expect your cut to amount to much.

F1 in Miami: That's what it looks like when an upgrade works

2026-05-05T00:13:41.353+05:30

After an unanticipated five-week break in the season, Formula One resumed action this past weekend in Miami. Held at a temporary circuit around Hard Rock Stadium, the event is emblematic of the Liberty era of F1: a turbocharged marketing extravaganza crammed full of hospitality suites with ticket prices as high as $95,000. It might be miles from the sea—the original plans to race across a bridge over Biscayne Bay did not survive contact with locals—but the sport is doing its best to make this a modern Monaco, playing up the host city's glamorous reputation and pastel color palette.

As we learned a couple of weeks ago, there have been tweaks to the amount of energy that the cars' new hybrid power units can regenerate and deploy via the electric motor that contributes almost half of the car's power output. The first three races of this season were frenetic, but they alarmed many longtime fans, as the cars are now too energy-limited to be driven flat-out during qualifying; that energy limitation also led to cars swapping positions multiple times, derisively dubbed "yo-yo" racing by critics.

The new limits on harvesting energy from the V6 to charge the battery on the move should reduce the potential for huge speed differentials like the one that caused Oliver Bearman's crash in Japan, and energy management was (thankfully) not much of a topic this weekend. Miami's layout definitely helps there, with plenty of braking zones to help regenerate much of the now-allowed 7 MJ each lap.

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source https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/f1-in-miami-thats-what-it-looks-like-when-an-upgrade-works/

Microsoft's turned Windows into a cesspool, but it wants to do better

2026-05-04T05:33:48.698+05:30

Windows is a mess, GitHub keeps wobbling, Copilot draws flak - what’s wrong at Redmond?

kettle When it comes to making decisions that piss off your user base, no one knows how to do it like Microsoft. …

source https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/05/03/microsoft_promises_to_do_better/

Instructure confirms data breach, ShinyHunters claims attack

2026-05-04T04:24:15.389+05:30

Educational tech giant Instructure has confirmed that data was stolen in a cyberattack, with the ShinyHunters extortion gang claiming responsibility. [...]

source https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/instructure-confirms-data-breach-shinyhunters-claims-attack/

GNOME is good, actually

2026-05-04T02:38:25.525+05:30

While I’m normally a KDE user, I do keep close tabs on various other desktop environments, and install and set them up every now and then to see how they’re fairing, what improvements they’ve made, and ultimately, if my preference for KDE is still warranted. This usually means setting up a nice OpenBSD installation for Xfce, Fedora for GNOME, and less often others for some of the more niche desktop environments. Since GNOME 50 was just released, guess who’s time in the round is up?

Since everybody’s already made up their mind about their preferred desktop eons ago, with upsides and downsides debated far past their expiration date, I’m not particularly interested in reviewing desktop environments or Linux distributions. However, after asking around on Fedi, it seemed there was quite a bit of interest in an article detailing how I set up GNOME, what changes I make to the defaults, which extensions I use, what tweaks I apply, and so on.

Of course, everything described in this article is highly personal, and I’m not arguing that this is the optimal way to tweak GNOME, that the extensions I use are the best ones, or that any visual modifications I make are better than whatever defaults GNOME uses. No, my goal with this article is twofold: one, to highlight that GNOME is a lot more configurable, extensible, and malleable than common wisdom on the internet would have you believe. It’s not KDE or one of those cobbled-together tiling Wayland desktops, but it’s definitely not as rigid as you might think. And two, that GNOME is good, actually.

Tools of the trade

The first thing I do is install a few crucial tools that make it easier to modify and tweak GNOME. I really dislike lists in articles, but I will begrudgingly use one here:

GNOME Tweaks: this tool gives you easy access to some hidden settings, most notably to easily switch themes.
Extension Manager: the easiest way to find, install, update, and manage GNOME extensions. With this application, you won’t need to use the browser for extensions at all.
dconf Editor: a tool to fiddle with even more obscure GNOME settings.
Add Water: an application with an odd name, designed entirely to easily install and update the Firefox GNOME Theme, which transforms Firefox (or LibreWolf, in my case) into something that much more closely resembles a GNOME/libadwaita application.

After installing all of these tools, the actual tweaking can commence.

Visual tweaks

I didn’t use to like GNOME’s Adwaita visual style, but over the years, it started growing on me to the point where I don’t actively dislike it anymore. With the arrival of libadwaita, it has also become effectively impossible to theme modern GNOME applications, so even if you do change to something else, many of your applications won’t follow along. If consistency is something you care about, you’ll stick to Adwaita, but that leaves one problem unresolved: applications that still use GTK3. These applications will follow a much older version of Adwaita, making them stand out like eyesores among all the modern GTK4 stuff.

Luckily, since GTK3 applications are still properly themable, this is easily fixed: just install the adw-gtk3 theme, either by hand, or through your distribution’s repositories. To enable it, first install the user themes extension through Extension Manager, and then enable the theme in GNOME Tweaks for “Legacy Applications”. Any potential GTK3 applications you still use will now integrate nicely with modern libadwaita applications.

The one part of GNOME I really do deeply dislike is its icon theme. I can’t quite explain why I dislike this icon set so much, but it runs deep, so one of the very first things I do is replace the default GNOME icon set with my personal favourite, Qogir. This is a popular icon set, so it’s usually available in your distribution’s repositories, but I always install it from its GitHub page. Changing GNOME’s icon set is as simple as selecting it in GNOME Tweaks. You can’t get much more personal taste than an icon set, and there are dozens of amazing sets to choose from in the Linux world. Changing them out and trying out new ones is stupidly easy, and it’s definitely worth looking at a few that might be more pleasing to you than GNOME’s (or KDE’s) default.

Lastly, I open Add Water and enable the amazing GNOME theme for LibreWolf. Add Water basically makes this as easy as flipping a switch, so there’s no need to copy any files into your LibreWolf profile or whatever. The application also provides a few more small tweaks to fiddle with, like enabling standard tab widths so tabs don’t grow and shrink as you close and open tabs, moving the bookmarks bar below the tab bar, and many more.

Extensions

Since the release of GNOME 3 in 2011, extensions have been the most capable way to modify GNOME’s look, behaviour, and feature set. As far as I can tell, while the extension framework is an official part of the GNOME Shell, the extensions themselves are all third-party and not part of a vanilla GNOME installation. By now, there are over 2800 listed extensions, but that number includes abandoned extensions so it’s hard to determine the actual number of currently-maintained ones. Whatever the actual number is, there’s bound to be things in there you’re going to want to use.

Here are the extensions I have installed. Let’s just start at the top and work our way down. I guess I’m forced to do another list.

AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support: for reasons that are clearly beyond my limited understanding of the world, GNOME does not support AppIndicators, KStatusNotifierItems, and legacy system tray icons. This must-have extensions fixes this inexplicable omission.
ArcMenu: a very configurable application/Start menu kind of thing. Has tons of options and preconfigured layouts, and is an absolute must for me as I’m a basic guy whose second GUI was Windows 95.
Blur my Shell: as the name implies, adds a nice configurable blur effect to various parts of the GNOME shell. An entirely aesthetic thing that adds little in functionality.

Dash to Dock: adds a dock to GNOME. An absolute 100% must for me. I used Mac OS X back when it didn’t suck (10.2-10.6), and my love for the dock metaphor is one of the few things from that time that stuck.
Date Menu Formatter: GNOME is remarkably limited and rigid when it comes to configuring locale-related settings, as it forces you to adopt every individual aspect of a locale (contrary to KDE, which has a very detailed settings screen for every aspect of locale). Even though I’m Dutch and live in Sweden, I always use all my software in US English, which in the case of GNOME also means adopting things like US currency, date formats, and so on. This little extension allows me to manually format the date in the top bar to be actually readable.
Gtk4 Desktop Icons NG (DING): GNOME does not support desktop icons. I think this is a bizarre design decision. This extension brings desktop icons back, with a nice collection of settings to adapt them to your needs.

Junk Notification Cleaner: whenever an application receives a notification, GNOME puts them in its notification center in the top clock menu. Sadly, this is also the only place where you can dismiss them. With this extension, you can set it so that the notifications of an application are cleared when you focus its window, close it, or both. I set it to both.
Just Perfection: this extension provides you with a massive set of toggles and switches to change tons of little aspects of the GNOME Shell. I use to hide a slew of buttons and toggles from the clock and top-right menu on the top panel that I never use, as well as to move the notification OSD to the top-right.
Lock Keys: ads a little Caps Lock icon in the top panel when Caps Lock is engaged. Very useful, especially when your keyboard lacks indicator LEDs.
User Themes: allows you to set GNOME Shell themes from your home directory.
Weather or Not: one of the many extensions that adds the weather to the top bar. We have two toddlers and live in the Arctic – we absolutely must have frictionless instant access to the current outside temperature.
Places Status Indicator: puts a menu in the top bar with some frequently used locations.

There are countless more extensions to choose from, and you’re definitely going to find things you never even thought could be useful.

Miscellaneous tweaks

There’s a few other things I modify. In GNOME Tweaks, I make it so that double-clicking a window’s titlebar minimises it while right-clicking it lowers it; two features I picked up during my years as a BeOS user that I absolutely refuse to give up. I configure the dock from Dash to Dock so that it always remains on top and never hides itself, no matter the circumstances. In Settings, I disable virtual desktops entirely (I don’t like virtual desktops), and I make sure tap-to-click is disabled (if I’m on a laptop).

GNOME is good, actually

After making all of these changes, I feel quite comfortable using GNOME, at least on my laptop. It’s a nice, coherent experience, and offers what is probably the most polished graphical user interface you can find on Linux, even if it isn’t the most full-featured. The third-party application ecosystem, through modern libadwaita applications, is also quite healthy, moreso than what you find on KDE. To get there, however, I need to make a lot of changes to fix, undo, or work around some of the more… Peculiar defaults in GNOME, primarily through extensions.

And I think this is a problem.

The GNOME extension ecosystem is lively and active, but it also highlights a potential shortcoming of GNOME. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use GNOME without extensions, and it’s honestly not hard to see why. Things like desktop icons and a system tray are pretty basic features of any modern desktop, and it’s not surprising that people seek them out, regardless of any grand design vision the GNOME team may have. GNOME developers can and should do whatever they want and what they think is right, but perhaps some of the most popular extensions should become official parts of GNOME if they are as popular as they seem.

For now, GNOME extensions kind of feel like the little block holding up the entire stack in that xkcd comic. Is it really wise to leave this linchpin to third parties, especially considering extensions run code on your machine? Sure, they make GNOME a lot more configurable and extensible than prevailing sentiments would have you believe, but perhaps not in the most convenient and safest way. Also, several of them break every time GNOME does a new release. Bummer.

In the end, though, GNOME is a product of its developers, and they alone get to decide how they want it to behave, what it looks like, and which features it will and won’t have. With how popular GNOME is, you have to be a real dishonest person to argue that what they have built isn’t a damn fine desktop environment, even if it makes some design decisions some of us find baffling. It won’t replace KDE as my desktop of choice, but having two excellent desktops like these that far outshine whatever “AI” and ad-ridden crap the proprietary vendors have to offer is truly an embarrassment of riches for the open source desktop world.

source https://www.osnews.com/story/144862/gnome-is-good-actually/

Microsoft Defender wrongly flags DigiCert certs as Trojan:Win32/Cerdigent.A!dha

2026-05-04T00:24:34.821+05:30

Microsoft Defender is detecting legitimate DigiCert root certificates as Trojan:Win32/Cerdigent.A!dha, resulting in widespread false-positive alerts, and in some cases, removing certificates from Windows. [...]

source https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-defender-wrongly-flags-digicert-certs-as-trojan-win32-cerdigentadha/

Job's a good 'un: Bank of England tech project wins watchdog praise

2026-05-03T14:33:49.691+05:30

PAC: Now why can't everybody else in public sector do it like this?

Parliament's spending watchdog has held up a successful large-scale public sector tech transformation as a rare example worth emulating, in a striking departure from the usual diet of failure and overspend.…

source https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/05/03/bank_of_england_tech_migration/

Critrical cPanel flaw mass-exploited in "Sorry" ransomware attacks

2026-05-03T04:24:19.560+05:30

A new disclosed cPanel flaw tracked as CVE-2026-41940 is being mass-exploited to breach websites and encrypt data in "Sorry" ransomware attacks. [...]

source https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/critrical-cpanel-flaw-mass-exploited-in-sorry-ransomware-attacks/

I was wrong about Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

2026-05-03T00:57:12.806+05:30

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred is the pinnacle of the series, and I'm so happy to be wrong about my fears.

source https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/i-was-wrong-about-diablo-4-lord-of-hatred

I was wrong about Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

2026-05-03T00:35:38.004+05:30

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred is the pinnacle of the series, and I'm so happy to be wrong about my fears.

The Newest Echo Show Is $50 Off Right Now

2026-05-02T00:15:18.533+05:30

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Echo Show has come a long way since its humble beginnings. The latest smart display from Amazon came out in the winter of 2025 and, for the first time, brings Fire TV integrated into the display, so you can stream your shows directly on it, as well as Alexa+ AI voice control, among other improvements. Right now, the 11-inch Echo Show 11 is $169.99 (originally $219.99) and the 8-inch Echo Show 8 is $139.99 (originally $179.99), both at their lowest prices according to price-tracking tools.

Vibrant HD 8.7" display with spatial audio, Designed for Alexa+, Graphite

Echo Show 8 Smart Display (Graphite)

Vibrant Full-HD 11" display with more viewing area and spatial audio, Designed for Alexa+, Graphite

Amazon Echo Show 11 Smart Display (Graphite)

The Amazon Echo Show 11 replaced the 3rd Generation Echo Show 10. One of the obvious differences is the smaller size, but the screen is actually bigger since the bezels are much smaller, giving it a more modern look. The sound is much better as well, with forward-facing speakers and a subwoofer that can fill up a room with sound. The resolution on the display has been bumped to 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, which is better but still underwhelming considering it's not 4K. Some of the more subtle upgrades are the new support for Matter, Thread, and Zigbee, essentially covering almost every smart home device.

If you had the 3rd Gen Echo Show 10, you'll notice the physical camera shutter is gone (you can still disable the camera in settings), as well as the swivel camera feature that follows you around (it is now mounted in place). Amazon's new Alexa+ generative AI is free for Prime members, otherwise, it'll be $19.99 per month. Alexa+ can do anything you'd expect it to; it's conversational, can control your devices without needing to say the exact words in the right order, and will remember past conversations. You can check out more details on PCMag's "excellent" review.

The Echo Show 11 and 8 are the same device, even in audio; the only difference is the screen size and the price.

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Amazon stuck with months of repairs after drone strikes on data centers

2026-05-02T00:13:41.031+05:30

Amazon’s cloud customers will need to wait several more months before the US tech company can repair war-damaged data centers and restore normal operations in the Middle East. The announcement comes two months after Iranian drone strikes targeted three Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain—meaning that full recovery from the cloud disruption could take nearly half a year in all.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) dashboard posted an April 30 update describing how its UAE and Bahrain cloud regions “suffered damage as a result of the conflict in the Middle East” and are unable to support customer applications. The update also said that “relevant billing operations are currently suspended while we restore normal operations” in a process that “is expected to take several months.”

That wording suggests Amazon will continue to avoid billing AWS customers in the affected regions—ME-CENTRAL-1 and ME-SOUTH-1—after it initially waived all usage-related charges for March 2026 at an estimated cost of $150 million.

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source https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/05/amazon-stuck-with-months-of-repairs-after-drone-strikes-on-data-centers/

Windows Phone 8 is getting a second life thanks to 8Marketplace, patched Twitter app, and more

2026-05-01T00:57:38.947+05:30

Windows Phone 8 is seeing a surprising revival through community efforts like 8Marketplace, which restores app downloads, alongside patched apps that connect to modern services like Bluesky.

source https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/windows-phone/windows-phone-8-is-getting-a-second-life-thanks-to-8marketplace-patched-twitter-app-and-more

Bandwidth hogs rejoice, Celestica's latest switch is bristling with 64 ports of 1.6 Tbps Ethernet

2026-05-01T00:33:32.805+05:30

Networking kit arrives just in time for Nvidia's 1.6 Tbps ConnectX-9 NICs

If you thought 800 Gbps Ethernet was fast, just wait. Celestica's latest switches cram 64 1.6 Tbps ports into a single chassis.…

source https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/30/bandwith_hogs_rejoice_celesticas_latest/

Motorola reveals 2026 Razr lineup with modest upgrades and higher prices

2026-04-30T00:13:30.078+05:30

Motorola is crazy about foldables. With each passing year, the company has beefed up its folding phone lineup, and in 2026, there will be four devices launching on May 21. At the top end is the company's first tablet-style foldable, the Razr Fold. Below that, Motorola will again offer three flip-style foldables: the Razr Ultra, Razr+, and Razr. These phones get a few modest upgrades over last year's phones, along with price increases. Motorola is unfortunately not immune to the rising cost of components.

Specs at a glance: 2026 Motorola Razr series
	Razr 2026 ($800)	Razr+ 2026 ($1,100)	Razr Ultra 2026 ($1,500)	Razr Fold ($1,900)
SoC	MediaTek Dimensity 7450X	Snapdragon 8s Gen 3	Snapdragon 8 Elite "Pro"	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Memory	8GB	12GB	16GB	16GB
Storage	128GB	256GB	512GB	512GB
Display	External: 3.6-inch 1056 x 1066 OLED, 90 Hz, 1700 nits; Internal: 6.9-inch 1080 x 2640 OLED, 120 Hz, 3000 nits	External: 4-inch 1272 x 1080 OLED, 165 Hz, 2400 nits; Internal: 6.9-inch 1080 x 2640 OLED, 165 Hz, 3000 nits	External: 4-inch 1272 x 1080 OLED, 165 Hz, 3000 nits; Internal: 7-inch 1224 x 2992 OLED, 165 Hz, 5000 nits	External: 6.6-inch 2520 x 1080 pOLED, 165 Hz, 6000 nits; Internal: 8.1-inch 2484 x 2232 LTPO OLED, 120 Hz, 6,200 nits
Cameras	50 MP wide, f/1.7; 50 MP ultrawide, f/2.0; 32 MP selfie, f/2.4	50 MP wide, f/1.8; 50 MP ultrawide, f/2.0; 32 MP selfie, f/2.4	50 MP wide, f/1.8; 50 MP ultrawide, f/2.0; 50 MP selfie, f/2.0	50 MP wide, F/1.6; 50 MP ultrawide with Macro, f/2.2; 50 MP 3x telephoto; 32 MP outer selfie, f/2.4; 20 MP inner selfie, f/2.4
Software	Android 16	Android 16	Android 16	Android 16
Battery	4800 mAh, up to 30 W wired charging, wireless charging	4500 mAh, up to 45 W wired charging, wireless charging	5,000 mAh, up to 68 W wired, wireless charging	6000 mAh, up to 80 W wired charging, 50 W wireless charging
Connectivity	Sub-6 GHz 5G	Sub-6 GHz 5G	Sub-6 GHz 5G	Sub-6 GHz 5G
Measurements	Open: 171.30 × 73.99 × 7.25 mm Closed: 88.08 × 73.99 × 15.85 mm, 188g	Open: 171.42 × 73.99 × 7.09 mm Closed: 88.09 × 73.99 × 15.32 mm, 189g	Open: 171.48 × 73.99 × 7.19 mm Closed: 88.12 × 73.99 × 15.69 mm, 199g	Open: 160 height × 144.4 width × 4.55 depth (mm); Closed: 160 height × 73.6 width × 9.89 depth (mm), 243g
Colors	Hematite, Violet Ice, Sporting Green, Bright White	Mountain View	Orient Blue, Cocoa	Blackened Blue, Lily White

The Razr Fold represents a big step for Moto. Its foldable flip phones have revived the Razr name and offered a good alternative to Samsung's Z Flip line, but people buying foldables are generally more interested in the large format. As prices at the lower end of the spectrum ratchet up, there's less and less distance between premium flip phones and bigger foldables. At $1,900, the Razr Fold is not a cheap phone, but it's roughly in line with the pricing of 2025 foldables (right between Google and Samsung). Given the current state of things, that's a small win for 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

Moto's first big foldable is almost here. Credit: Motorola

Motorola is not reinventing the wheel with the Fold, so you can expect a device that looks and feels similar to other big foldables like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. It's about the same size as Google's foldable but slightly thinner and lighter. Samsung's Z Fold 7, however, is much thinner and lighter. Motorola does have the advantage of stylus input, which Samsung has dropped from its foldables. The Moto Stylus will launch at $99 alongside the Razr Fold on May 21.

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source https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/motorola-reveals-2026-razr-lineup-with-modest-upgrades-and-higher-prices/

Trump admin pays wind developers to quit, back fossil fuel projects

2026-04-29T00:33:30.461+05:30

DoI offers up to $885M if they abandon offshore wind projects

As the Iran war pushes up energy prices, the Trump administration is paying offshore wind developers to walk away from projects and invest instead in fossil fuel infrastructure.…

source https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/28/trump_admin_pay_off_wind_farm/