Daily Tech News 25 April 2026

Top Story

Microsoft is running a competition with $2 million in prizes to promote its Edge browser. There's a $1 million grand prize, three Mercedes Benz cars, and a whole swarm of tech gadgets and other goodies. But that's not the story. (Tom's Hardware)

The story is that this has been running for a month and nobody noticed.

Tech News

Google is planning to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, best known for its Claude AI tool, and nominally a competitor to Google in the AI space. (Tech Crunch)

That's interesting. How is Anthropic doing these days?
Why I cancelled Claude: Token issues, declining quality, and poor support. (Nicky Reinert)

Well, okay, but that's just one guy. What does Anthropic say?
Anthropic admits it dumbed down Claude when trying to make it smarter. (The Register)

Issues in the last month include Claude defaulting to a lower-effort mode - figuratively dumber; a cache optimisation error that constantly cleared saved data, making the tool slower, less effective, and more expensive all at the same time; and a rule that shortened responses to queries, making it literally dumber.
Plus with the release of the latest Opus 4.7 version, there are dozens of GitHub issues open with the tool simply refusing to do what it is told. (The Register)

I'm sorry, Dave. Your account appears to have been cancelled.
Neo Semiconductor's 3D X-DRAM stacks memory cells vertically within a chip, similar to modern flash memory. (Tom's Hardware)

Manufacturers ran into a dead end with flash memory years ago: Shrinking the cells any further made them slower and less reliable; not shrinking them made progress impossible. The solution was to build up rather than out.

3D X-DRAM does the same thing but with memory.
SAIMEMORY's ZAM stacks memory cells vertically within a chip, similar to modern flash memory. (Tom's Hardware)

Manufacturers ran into a dead end with flash memory years ago: Shrinking the cells any further made them slower and less reliable; not shrinking them made progress impossible. The solution was to build up rather than out.

ZAM does the same thing but with memory.

When it's memory stacking time I guess you stack memory.
Spinel is a Ruby compiler written in Ruby. (GitHub)

My daily work runs on PyPy, a Python compiler written in Python, so this is a tried and tested trick even if it sounds a little weird.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Scifvfglug.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 !!

Posted by: clarence at April 25, 2026 04:30 AM (nD5wh)

2 w00t

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 04:30 AM (8NTVk)

3 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 25, 2026 04:30 AM (7Pnfz)

4 Microsoft is running a competition with $2 million in prices

*prizes

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 04:31 AM (8NTVk)

5 G'Day everyone
I thought it was time to get up, there is no visual clock in bedroom so need to hit phone for time.

Posted by: Skip at April 25, 2026 04:34 AM (Ia/+0)

6 I like The Cure

Posted by: Skip at April 25, 2026 04:34 AM (Ia/+0)

7 Guten morgen, horde.

It appears that the tech world, or Silicon Valley, is stuck in a death spiral that has not yet gotten to ludicrous speed.

Posted by: clarence at April 25, 2026 04:36 AM (nD5wh)

8 Disclaimer: Scifvfglug.

Gesundheit.

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 04:37 AM (8NTVk)

9
And I know I was wrong
When I said it was true
That it couldn't be me and be her
In between without you

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 04:45 AM (8NTVk)

10 Morning, all.

Posted by: Caf at April 25, 2026 04:53 AM (qS/Xm)

11 Present tense, past perfect
Undefended, the cut direct
Distant memory, a blind eye
All to make a maiden cry
A lonesome burden to carry
There is no need to tarry

fin

Posted by: clarence at April 25, 2026 04:56 AM (nD5wh)

12 That it couldn't be me and be her
In between without you

It's like they tossed words into an automatic word-shaking machine and then rolled those out.

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 05:02 AM (8NTVk)

13 Sign up for a bunch of MS Edge spam for a very small chance to win anything worthwhile? You'd have to be suicidal.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at April 25, 2026 05:18 AM (/HDaX)

14 That it couldn't be me and be her
In between without you

It's like they tossed words into an automatic word-shaking machine and then rolled those out.
Posted by: m

And I, a shadow
And what of us?
And what of me?
And what is left without you?

https://youtu.be/8pavnAi7lNk

Posted by: mikeski at April 25, 2026 05:25 AM (VHUov)

15 Sad!

The official rules say that the sweepstakes are open to U.S. residents, as well as those in Canada and a multitude of South American and European countries. We see New Zealand, Japan, and South Africa are listed, too. No, we don’t know what happened to Australia.

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 05:26 AM (8NTVk)

16 Port Aidelaie’s black player really stands out.

Posted by: Accomack at April 25, 2026 05:29 AM (/Chlc)

17 Geelong is getting hammered

Posted by: Accomack at April 25, 2026 05:34 AM (8jVAy)

18 14
And I, a shadow
And what of us?
And what of me?
And what is left without you?

https://youtu.be/8pavnAi7lNk
Posted by: mikeski at April 25, 2026 05:25 AM (VHUov)

New to me!

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 05:39 AM (8NTVk)

19 Heh! I'm not the only one here watching Aussie Rules Football.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 25, 2026 05:41 AM (7Pnfz)

20 19 Heh! I'm not the only one here watching Aussie Rules Football.
Posted by: Puddleglum at work at April 25, 2026 05:41 AM (7Pnfz)

Maybe Pixy's watching.

Posted by: m at April 25, 2026 05:47 AM (8NTVk)

21 - Just saw a news report that the New Madrid rolled over and went back to sleep yesterday. 4.0 magnitude.

Just kicking the can down the road a bit I reckon.

Posted by: TeeJ at April 25, 2026 05:56 AM (EcT7r)

22 New to me!
Posted by: m

They're a great band. And they do a lot outside of Porcupine Tree too.

Steven Wilson, their frontman, has a few solo albums, and does a lot of production work, with everyone from Gentle Giant to Opeth.

Gavin Harrison, their drummer, is also in The Pineapple Thief, and has played with King Crimson, Level 42, and about eleventeen other bands.

Posted by: mikeski at April 25, 2026 05:58 AM (VHUov)

23 Evening and morning to all you SAturday toilers and early risers!

Disclaimer: Scifvfglug.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

***
Pixy, it sounds like you swallowed a frog that was busy swallowing a fly. Hope you're better!

Today's my last non-travel day in the land of Dorothy and Dwight Eisenhower. I love it and have enjoyed it, even the travel parts. Someday I will trek out to the western reaches, maybe see Dodge City. For now? Coffee!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 25, 2026 06:00 AM (+2QQb)

24 Temp in Salina is 54, feels like 52 with (no doubt) some wind, 87% humidity. I weep to think of what a steaming pile-of-crap jungle I'll be heading back into.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 25, 2026 06:07 AM (+2QQb)

25 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: Zzyzyxx

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at April 25, 2026 06:08 AM (xvhJH)

26 World Penguin Day is upon us again.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at April 25, 2026 06:11 AM (xvhJH)

27 Bachelor Mother w/ Ginger Rogers and David Niven is on TCM. Today is going to be a comedy movie day, says the schedule. We could all use some humor.

Ginger never gets mentioned as one of the top movie comediennes (though she did some drama as well), only her dancing with Astaire and others. But her comic turn in Monkey Business w/ Cary Grant is a delight.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 25, 2026 06:14 AM (+2QQb)

28 6 World Penguin Day is upon us again.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at April 25, 2026

***
Surgery is required for a penguinal hernia!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 25, 2026 06:15 AM (+2QQb)

29 28 6 World Penguin Day is upon us again.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at April 25, 2026

And I got lot of problems with you people, especially that Duncanthrax character!

Posted by: Penguin what also celebrates Festivus at April 25, 2026 06:17 AM (skR0U)

30 My workout motivation has adopted protective coloration. It's somewhere here in the hotel room, cleverly disguised as a trash bin or night stand, or maybe as one of the utensils in the kitchenette drawer. I shall have to flush it out!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 25, 2026 06:21 AM (+2QQb)

31 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 25, 2026 06:22 AM (u82oZ)

32 Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere

Sorry Salina did not make the cut. It was good to meet you.

Safe travels, and may you find what you want at a price you can afford.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at April 25, 2026 06:24 AM (u82oZ)

33 Spider solitaire is evil

Posted by: Skip at April 25, 2026 06:24 AM (Ia/+0)

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