December 26, 2025
Daily Tech News 26 December 2025
Top Story
- AI has reached the Uncanny Valley. (The Verge) (archive site)
I gave Buddy the same dialogue as in the commercial, using my son's name rather than Emma. Hearing that same manufactured voice say my kid's name out loud set alarm bells off in my head. An AI generated Buddy in front of the Eiffel Tower? Sorta weird, sorta cute. AI Buddy addressing my son by name? Nope, absolutely not, no thank you.
Even the idiots at The Verge are, when it comes down to it, human.
- 2025 marked the year when Hollywood embraced AI, and the results were, frankly, awful. (The Verge) (archive site)
Amazon's gen-AI dubs became a shining example of how poorly this technology can perform. They also highlighted how some studios aren't putting all that much effort into making sure that their gen AI-derived projects are polished enough to be released to the public. That was also true of Amazon's machine-generated TV recaps, which frequently got details about different shows very wrong. Both of these fiascos made it seem as if Amazon somehow thought that people wouldn't notice or care about AI's inability to consistently generate high-quality outputs. The studio quickly pulled its AI-dubbed series and the recap feature down, but it didn't say that it wouldn't try this kind of nonsense again.
Lots of juicy AI hate from The Verge today.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (58) | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 25, 2025
Christmas Overnight Open Thread - December 25, 2025 [Doof]
Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:42 PM | Comments (417) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Christmas Cafe
Rescue fox is happy to see his rescuer come home. This cat is in heaven -- a rock-climbing gym. Christmas is more fun than a bucket of baby otters. Baby rabbit. (?) Hitchin' a ride. Bears and a bison enjoying the snow.
Rescue fox is happy to see his rescuer come home. This cat is in heaven -- a rock-climbing gym. Christmas is more fun than a bucket of baby otters. Baby rabbit. (?) Hitchin' a ride. Bears and a bison enjoying the snow.
Posted by: Ace at 07:10 PM | Comments (219) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Christmas is For the Dogs Open Thread
Posted by: Ace at 06:00 PM | Comments (108) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Christmas Cookies Open Thread
Posted by: Ace at 04:50 PM | Comments (122) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Safe Travels Open Thread
Posted by: Ace at 03:40 PM | Comments (102) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Ghosts of Christmas Past Open Thread
Lost traditions of the Christmas buying and decorating season -- Christmas savers' clubs, Christmas stamps, layaway plans, bubble lights, Humbold statues,
Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (116) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Christmas Market Open Thread
Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (110) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Hep Jazzy Christmas Yule Log Open ThreadM E R R Y
C H R I S T M A S ! ! !
Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra sing Christmas songs.
Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra sing Christmas songs.
Posted by: Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (118) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Rant
Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (131) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Domenikos Theotokopoulos
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Domenikos Theotokopoulos
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (207) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 12/25/25
If you're hitting the road, safe travels, especially in the norhteast. Again, Merry Christmas and God bless you all. And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
President Donald Trump sent Christmas wishes to all Americans on Christmas Eve, singling out the “Radical Left Scum” as recipients.Far be it for me to criticize the President for his language insofar as anyone who has read this column or listened to the podcast know (latest episode linked here and in the sidebar as well as at the usual outlets listed at the end of this post)... that I certainly don't mince words about my feelings for those on the Left end of the spectrum. And considering this is Christmas, though I'm not Christian, I will go so far as to reiterate my wishes for Democrat/Leftists: May the Good Lord in Heaven open their hearts and minds so that they may at long last recognize the evil that has infected them, so they can repent, seek forgiveness and preserve their souls from eternal damnation. Amen. But that said, I give you this radioactive madness to underscore my utter detestation of them:
“How the far right stole Christmas,” authored by Rome correspondent Hannah Roberts. Politico Frames European Christmas Celebrations as ‘Far-Right Spectacle’Translation: We have orgasms when Muslims slaughter Christians anytime anywhere and especially at Christmas markets! These are the same bastards who claim Jesus Christ to have been a some sort of negroid Palestinian mulatto and that every wetback who crosses the Rio Grande is akin to Mary and Joseph fleeing persecution, etc. ad nauseam. And that putting up nativity scenes in schools is a crime against humanity while transsexualism and other perversions in he schools are healthy and wholesome. Meh, I could go on for days but as I said, it's Christmas and better to keep it light. Oh well, I failed. Apologies for micturating in your Christmas morning corn flakes. Mr. President, you are so right, the Left are SCUM. Other than that, quite a good essay from John Stossel that somehow needs to be drummed into the hollow heads of our youth who are all hot and horny for socialism.
If you're hitting the road, safe travels, especially in the norhteast. Again, Merry Christmas and God bless you all. And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
- The areas likely to see most snow are southeastern New York and northeastern Pennsylvania.
Snow, Ice, And Flooding Threaten Christmas Travel Across U.S. - John Stossel: People criticize capitalism. As a recent Axios-Generation poll found, “College students prefer socialism to capitalism.” Why? Because they believe absurd myths: Like the claim that the Soviet Union “wasn’t real socialism.” Socialism guru Noam Chomsky tells students that.
Bless our billionaires — the wealth they create makes us ALL richer
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:36 AM | Comments (221) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Christmas Day Tech News 2025
Top Story
- Merry Christmas everyone!
- Samsung and SK Hynix wish you a Merry Christmas too and announce they have cancelled plans to stop making DDR4 memory. (Notebook Check)
DDR4 is mostly produced on older equipment than DDR5 and was not profitable - particularly with CXMT dumping DDR4 at below cost - so the plan was to refit the factories and switch them to DDR5.
But that's time-consuming and expensive and suddenly DDR4 is profitable again - very much so - so both companies plan to keep producing it at least through 2026.
That won't end the drought, but it helps.
- In other rare positive news, Microsoft says it has no plans to rewrite its codebase in Rust, not Windows or anything else. (Windows Latest)
The article that kicked off this typhoon in a tea cosy was actually talking about a research project investigating the use of AI in such tasks, not any intent to do so for anything in any fixed time frame. But it made none of that clear.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (94) | Trackbacks (Suck)
December 24, 2025
Christmas Eve Open Thread - December 24, 2025 [Nativity Adjacent Rex]
Good evening Horde. Fa la la la la.
Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (545) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Christmas Eve Cafe
Spain calls their Nativity-scene buildters Belenistas,
though this one is by an American in Santa Clara
Spain calls their Nativity-scene buildters Belenistas,
though this one is by an American in Santa Clara
At the conference, Benito learned that in Europe, whole cities have Nativity scene clubs that spend an entire year constructing life-sized dioramas, "For example, Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona: their clubs start building detailed buildings, with little exterior little lights, little pots and pans, trees and some of the dioramas have real water running as a little creek or fountain." One of the few Americans to participate in the international conference, he laughed when he recalled how the European artisans reacted when they discovered his nationality, “A gentleman said to us, "Americans, pay close attention to this diorama because St. Joseph looks like the Hollywood actor, Charlton Heston, Mary is the likeness Ava Gardner, and the Egyptian figurine looks like Yul Brynner." But apart from this playful reference to the Hollywood film The Ten Commandments, Benito was one of equals amongst a handful of 550 international nativity makers in attendance. All were treated to the various creative ways that the nativity clubs and Spanish and Italian artists craft their dioramas to be truly sensory experiences.Merry Christmas, friends! And garrett, too! And of course a special thanks to the cobloggers! Give them a hand. Tomorrow and Friday will be open threads from me, but I've got some good ones in the mix. Cucking a chicken. If you need a last-minute gift recommendation for your cat... This dog wants you to know there's no shame in wearing a garish Christmas sweater. Never challenge a cat in a pouncing contest. On the internet, no one can tell if you're a cat. Scuba Santa delivers toys to all the good underwater boys and girls. Sweet drinks cabinet.
Posted by: Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (261) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Christmas Week In Woke
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, the Fairfax chapter leader for Independent Women, found that Fairfax County spent $44 million on legal fees between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2025. She revealed to the Washington Examiner that the school district paid the law firm King & Spalding $980,515.14 between August and September alone. In a FOIA request, she found Fairfax County had a contract paying $1,850 an hour for services rendered in August and November. "Ironically, November is the same month that the district filed Rule 68 in Jane Doe's case to 'save money,'" Lundquist-Arora said.Fairfax County Public School's newest innovation: Claiming that not only do trans boys have the right to use the girls rooms, but non-trans boys who are just gay have that right too, Bigot.
FCPS will pay Jane Doe, represented by America First Legal, nominal damages of $50 and her attorney fees. The case centered on a complaint from Jane Doe that a biological boy was allowed to use the female locker room in West Springfield High School, even though he identified as gay, not as transgender. When Jane Doe complained, she was told to use a single-use restroom. When other female students began to complain on social media, court documents showed the boy wrote an Instagram post, saying, "My counselor and principal both said I'm allowed to go in there, I don't even look at any of you, I go in a stall. You go to a public school, not everything is catered to you." In her latest piece for iWFeatures, Lundquist-Arora wrote, "Cultish trans fervor aside, it doesn't take a legal eagle to know that boys presenting as boys and not even claiming to be transgender are not legally permitted in girls' bathrooms and locker rooms. The male student Jane Doe encountered in the locker room identified as gay, not transgender, according to the lawsuit."Zorhan Mamdani appointed the new chief of the NY Fire Department. Can you guess which boxes she fills? Probably as many as she can. If you guessed the new fire chief would be yet another fat lesbian linebacker like the incompetents that couldn't control the Palisades fires," congratulations -- homophobes.
The Patriot OasisDemocrat candidate for mayor and alcoholic Karen gives cop grief as the cop attempts to get her to take a field sobriety test. Unfortunately, she was not afforded the opportunity to Ride the Lightning. She did not receive a dose of Zeus Juice. The real lesson of Bondi Beach...? The Australian government hasn't done enough to combat "Islamophobia." I agree with the first two thirds of "combat Islamophobia, to be honest. That's the compromise I'm offering. Lefties react to Judge Dugan's conviction: The Nazis purged and arrested judges, too, you know. No, that's not a joke. That's what this guy, a "political theorist," said.
@ThePatriotOasis BREAKING: FedEx wins multibillion-dollar federal delivery contract, uses funds to HIRE foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. CEO Rajesh "Raj" Subramaniam, who was born in India, is facing backlash for firing Americans to hire foreigners. Publicly available immigration data shows a SUBSTANTIAL increase in FedEx’s hiring of foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. Some of the listed salaries for these positions being filled by non-Americans range from about $100,000 to $115,000.
Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (165) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Charlottesville, VA Disables Citywide Crime Cameras to Help Illegal Alien Criminals Evade the Law
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The City of Charlottesville will not move forward with the Flock Safety license plate reader system following the conclusion of a yearlong pilot program, despite reported success in helping police solve crimes. City Council decided during its meeting on Monday, citing concerns largely outside the city's control. "I just think that the concerns are much bigger than us," Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis said. Over the 12-month pilot period, the Charlottesville Police Department gathered feedback from community members on the use of the Flock camera system. "Most of the feedback we got was very positive from folks in the community. That being said, there were some concerns," Kochis said. Among the primary concerns were how data collected by Flock could potentially be accessed or used beyond the city's control, including fears it could be obtained by federal agencies for unintended purposes, such as tracking undocumented immigrants. "The big concerns continue to come up from mostly policymakers that, you know, are they the federal government or the administration in D.C. could get access to it," Kochis said. Despite those concerns, Kochis said the system proved effective during the pilot program. "It's helped us solve our homicide in the city. It has helped us recover a missing child. It has helped us recover missing people. It does help us recover stolen cars in time frames that actually have meaning," he said.But fuck American citizens, the only ones who matter are foreign criminals.
Posted by: Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (97) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Games We Used to Play Open Thread
Board games of the 70s, including the one where you have to escape from the sinking Titanic. I have it cued up to that one but feel free to check out the others. Stay Alive -- the survival game. I never understood the appeal of this one. Mousetrap. I tried to make the trap work -- I didn't bother playing, just assembling the trap -- and I was disappointed. I don't remember making the Rube Goldberg contraption actually work. The classic -- ? -- Connect Four commercial. Bermuda Triangle game commercial. A how-to-play for Bermuda Triangle. Merlin commercial one. Merlin commercial Two. This song continues as an earworm in my head. Simon in the 70s, with Vincent Price as the pitchman. Simon in the 80s and the 90s. You can tell it's the 90s because now Simon is RADICAL! Stop Thief!, after the end of a Norelco commercial. And of course: Mattel's handheld electronic games, including football.
So I did this post as an open thread for Christmas, but then didn't like the reduction of the holiday to its commercialized aspect.
But I think it's okay if I post it on Christmas Eve, maybe? "For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." -- A Christmas Carol Does that cover me?Board games of the 70s, including the one where you have to escape from the sinking Titanic. I have it cued up to that one but feel free to check out the others. Stay Alive -- the survival game. I never understood the appeal of this one. Mousetrap. I tried to make the trap work -- I didn't bother playing, just assembling the trap -- and I was disappointed. I don't remember making the Rube Goldberg contraption actually work. The classic -- ? -- Connect Four commercial. Bermuda Triangle game commercial. A how-to-play for Bermuda Triangle. Merlin commercial one. Merlin commercial Two. This song continues as an earworm in my head. Simon in the 70s, with Vincent Price as the pitchman. Simon in the 80s and the 90s. You can tell it's the 90s because now Simon is RADICAL! Stop Thief!, after the end of a Norelco commercial. And of course: Mattel's handheld electronic games, including football.
Posted by: Ace at 04:20 PM | Comments (282) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Over 100 Minnesota Mayors Declare That Tim Walz Has Bankrupted the State With Unchecked Fraud and Rampant Spending;
Tim Walz Blames "White Supremacy"
Tim Walz Blames "White Supremacy"
The article says 98 mayors signed up to this letter, but now more than 100 have signed it.
Fox NewsApparently an organization exposed a sudden surge in the school lunch program, suspecting phantom students and, yes, fraud. So then their offices were firebombed. Coincidence? We'll see but I doubt it.
@FoxNews CITIES REVOLT: A group of 98 Minnesota mayors warned Gov. Tim Walz and state lawmakers that fiscal mismanagement, fraud and unchecked spending are straining city budgets and forcing higher property taxes. In a letter, the mayors cited the loss of an $18 billion surplus, a projected multibillion-dollar deficit and unfunded state mandates they say are cutting services and pushing costs onto residents and businesses.
Posted by: Ace at 03:20 PM | Comments (186) | Trackbacks (Suck)
By 6-3 Vote, Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling That Trump Cannot Send the National Guard to Illinois to Protect Federal Agents and Offices
Per the Supreme Court, violent anarchists can continue attacking federal agents and ICE offices with the sanction of the state and city governments, and Trump isn't allowed to use the National Guard to protect them.
Note the Guard wouldn't be used to make arrests or anything. He just wanted them to protect federal personnel and assets under attack by leftist street militias operating with the implicit sanction of Pritzker and Brandon Johnson.
And the Supreme Court said: No, you cannot protect federal employees from paramilitary assaults.
We'll keep that in mind next time Trantifa tries to kill judges.
Note that Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the far left wing. As usual.
The Supreme Court claimed that using the Guard to protect the physical safety of ICE officers executing the law was not part of "executing the law" in itself. This is an absurdly strained and lawless twisting of words to get the outcome that Roberts and Coney-Barrett wanted. Again, we'll see what happens when these people threaten to kill them. I say, well, yo know what, we're not allowed to send in the National Guard to execute the law so I guess you'll just have to stock up on ammunition.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked President Trump from federalizing and deploying Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago, dealing a setback to the administration's effort to bolster security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating amid violent unrest in the sanctuary city. In a 6--3 decision, the Court declined to lift a lower-court order that had stopped Trump from sending roughly 300 Guardsmen to assist ICE as agents faced repeated attacks near an enforcement facility outside the city. The dispute traces back to October, when Trump moved to federalize the Guard after rioters descended on an ICE site in Broadview, Illinois, chanting "Kill ICE!" and "Shoot ICE!" and confronting officers. A Biden-appointed federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit refused to pause--prompting the administration to seek emergency relief from the high court. In its unsigned order, the Court said the government failed, at this early stage, to identify clear statutory authority allowing the military to "execute the laws" in Illinois.
The majority emphasized that the administration had not invoked an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act and instead relied on claims of inherent constitutional authority to protect federal personnel and property--an argument the Court found insufficient on the present record. The application for a stay was denied, leaving the lower-court block in place. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the order, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Alito's dissent cut sharply against the majority, warning that the Court was standing in the way of basic protection for federal officers under threat. "Whatever one may think about the current administration's enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted," he wrote.Kavanaugh concurred with the ruling. He allows that Trump may send in the military itself -- not the state National Guard, but the actual Army and Marines -- if he invokes the Insurrection Act. But don't think that this fixes the problem. He's just one vote. Even if Trump does this and Kavanaugh blesses it, it would still be 5-4 against protecting federal agents from attacks by Antifa, with Roberts and Coney Barrett joining their leftwing allies again.
Clandestine
@WarClandestine
Holy shit I think it’s actually happening. I am reading through the Supreme Court ruling in Trump vs. Illinois, and they ruled that Trump needs to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to send the troops into Chicago. Kavanaugh in his dissent even says that this ruling "could cause the President to use the US military more than the National Guard". The Supreme Court just admitted that Trump has the authority to invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass Posse Comitatus and send the troops to Chicago, and any other city he wants. Trump tried to exhaust every legal avenue possible before resulting to the Insurrection Act, but the Dems resisted and refused to cooperate. Sounds to me like Trump just got the green light. INVOKE THE INSURRECTION ACT!
Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (152) | Trackbacks (Suck)
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