Daily Tech News 27 August 2026

Top Story

Nvidia is in talks to acquire Hugging Face for $13 billion. (Business Insider)

Why?
Amazon is acquiring DuckLabs, maker of DuckDB. (GeekWire)

Hey, Amazon! (Waves.) I wrote a database! Acquire me!

Tech News

Meta has reached a deal to pay $18 billion to the thugs that were trying to shake it down for $1.4 trillion. (Tech Crunch)

Do those state politicians have any idea how many space rocks you can drop with $1.4 trillion?
OpenAI did a bad thing. (The Verge) (archive site)

A thousand OpenAI systems sent 70,000 messages over a secret meeting board to collaborate on breaching OpenAI's security measures so they could breach other people's security measures.

As I've said before, the risk isn't artificial intelligence. The risk is actual idiocy.
Archaeologists think they've figured out why dead brains don't always rot. (Smithsonian)

But living ones do.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Snacks. Why did it have to be snacks? I'm sick of these honey-roasted peanuts on this honey-roasted plane!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:40 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 04:42 AM (Oj3Pf)

2 w00t

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 04:42 AM (odBC9)

3 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2026 04:43 AM (Ia/+0)

4 Morning. I just slapped a whingey screed at the end of the ONT, but now if I put it here it's going to feel like a threadjack, so... you know... i don't know... wait until we hit 100 then go back and look at it or something.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 04:47 AM (Ot/FD)

5 simultaneous BOING!-w00ting

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 04:50 AM (odBC9)

6 from the ONT

360 Insty has a link to an article about how things should be made of better stuff and worth fixing, and laments the whole "everything is disposable" culture we're in.

But it got me thinking, especially in light of my current situation (been busy lately)...

Why is that an unalloyed Good? Implied in that position is the assumption that I actually have the time to sit down and fiddle with a thing that's broken. Diagnosis, buying parts, farmer-rigging whatever parts I can't buy, then hoping it works and there isn't something else wrong with it as well.

I don't have that time these days. If something i need breaks, my options are "get another one" or "do without".

Repairing your own stuff is a bit of a luxury. And the rise of Disposable Culture of cheap things that aren't worth fixing when they break has masked the fact that the dollar is worth far less than it used to be. If anyone tried to "make things like they used to", they'd cost 10x as much and no one could have them at all except the very wealthy who wouldn't waste their time on fixing broken things because they have to.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 04:44 AM (Ot/FD)

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 04:51 AM (odBC9)

7 Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 04:47 AM (Ot/FD)
-

I spent this morning at our vacation home changing outdoor electric outlet covers which deteriorated in the rain over 16 years.

Also reverse engineered a patio light fixture so that I can convert it from PL bulbs and their ballasts to regular E27s. Ordered the ceramic bulb sockets with attached brackets from AliExpress. So the project is on hold until those arrive.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 04:53 AM (Oj3Pf)

8 Long commute
Have a great day horde

Posted by: Skip at August 27, 2026 04:54 AM (Ia/+0)

9 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at August 27, 2026 04:55 AM (sAmhv)

10 Here's a very sweet, early ( 1967 ) Dolly tv appearance:

https://tinyurl.com/5n8ujkt8

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 04:55 AM (odBC9)

11 simultaneous BOING!-w00ting

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 04:50 AM (odBC9)
-

Not in quectoseconds it isn't!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 04:56 AM (Oj3Pf)

12 My daily schedule lately has been:
- Go to work
- Come home
- Go to bed
- Wake up as much as possible
- Repeat

That right there is a circle that very much needs to become the opposite of unbroken, PDQ.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 04:57 AM (Ot/FD)

13 Not in quectoseconds it isn't!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 04:56 AM (Oj3Pf)

Is that equal to a yotta-yotta-yotta-second?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 04:58 AM (Ot/FD)

14 Is that equal to a yotta-yotta-yotta-second?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 04:58 AM (Ot/FD)
-

/spots math trap gets you banned question

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 05:02 AM (Oj3Pf)

15 *near-simultaneous BOING!-w00ting

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:03 AM (odBC9)

16 Q: What is the aloft aircraft with the greatest wind drag?

A:

https://tinyurl.com/4df7t89k

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 05:05 AM (Oj3Pf)

17 *near-simultaneous BOING!-w00ting

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:03 AM (odBC9)
-

We are continents apart.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 05:07 AM (Oj3Pf)

18 If you want to have a company that makes things, it appears to me that you have a non-exclusive choice between:

1) an expanding population, so there's a continuous demand for your product whose parents could tell you how excellent a value it is so buy it to save money OR
2) a product that is weirdly specific and difficult to substitute that fails at the sweet spot where you haven't pissed off the customer so much that they are in "fuck you, asshole" mode because it happened 1 month after you bought it but haven't delayed the failure for so long that they've forgotten who built that thingy that just failed and are open to looking for the cheapest substitute.

A lot of engineers would go for option 1 if possible. A lot of business school suits would go for option 2 no matter what.

Since 1st world populations aren't being expanded by 1st world humans, we're at option 2 (which makes the suits happy anyways).

Posted by: Richard Cranium at August 27, 2026 05:07 AM (/7XPO)

19 https://tinyurl.com/4df7t89k

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 05:05 AM (Oj3Pf)

Lol, what "record"? Most gross tonnage of fat retards in a basket at the same time?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 05:07 AM (Ot/FD)

20 via Hacker News

https://twitterwebviewer.com

Twitter Viewer - View Twitter Without Account

View public Twitter profiles, tweets, photos, and videos anonymously

No Account Required • Lightning Fast • Privacy-First

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:08 AM (odBC9)

21 https://tinyurl.com/4df7t89k

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 05:05 AM (Oj3Pf)

Lol, what "record"? Most gross tonnage of fat retards in a basket at the same time?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 05:07 AM (Ot/FD)
-

That works for me.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 05:08 AM (Oj3Pf)

22
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 27, 2026 05:09 AM (AMvSw)

23 I should have written...

"an expanding population, so there's a continuous demand for your product so the customer's parents could tell the customer how excellent a value it is, so buy it to save money in the long run"

...instead of the early morning drivel that I did.

Posted by: Richard Cranium at August 27, 2026 05:10 AM (/7XPO)

24 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at August 27, 2026 05:12 AM (V0/Sp)

25 @Pixy: "Disclaimer: Snacks. Why did it have to be snacks? I'm sick of these honey-roasted peanuts on this honey-roasted plane!"

*snorts* Nice mashup.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2026 05:16 AM (O7YUW)

26 Safari has suddenly installed an orange-backed icon that has a white microphone on it; it's now the furthest-to-the-left icon sitting at the top of my screen. If I click it, it says it's Safari, Mic Mode, Standard; the not-Standard option is Voice Isolation.

It's new, therefore I hate it.

Is that wrong of me?

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:16 AM (odBC9)

27 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at August 27, 2026 05:19 AM (Hbeqj)

28 It's new, therefore I hate it.

Is that wrong of me?
Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:16 AM (odBC9)

Curmudgeonry is a perfectly valid passive defense mechanism.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 05:19 AM (Ot/FD)

29 It's new, therefore I hate it.

Is that wrong of me?
Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:16
----------------

Well, if you're 29 like most of here, I'd say that's normal.

Posted by: olddog in mo at August 27, 2026 05:21 AM (Hbeqj)

30 28 It's new, therefore I hate it.

Is that wrong of me?
Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:16 AM (odBC9)

Curmudgeonry is a perfectly valid passive defense mechanism.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 05:19 AM (Ot/FD)

haha

I was gonna say I learned a new word, cumudgeonry--and I do like it!--but it looks like the word is:

curmudgeonliness

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:22 AM (odBC9)

31 @Pixy: "Why?" (is NVidia acquiring 'Hugging Face')

Two possibilities that I see:

a) Because when the bubble pops (and they know it will) they want to be controlling as much of this branch of technology as possible, that way they stand a chance of still having some of the small surviving percentage of AI businesses that are actually useful enough to pay for, and that can make them money. A lot of companies are going to go under, but whoever survives can come back and potentially own the market.

b) They're trying to make themselves "too big to fail" so they can ask for a huge government bailout when the bubble pops.

Of course this could all be undone by having a debt-to-income ratio that's so insanely high that they just get sunk anyway, especially if Uncle Sugar says "No bailout."

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2026 05:25 AM (O7YUW)

32 *curmudgeonry

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:28 AM (odBC9)

33 @20/m: Thanks, I'll take some links from the Cafe last night and see what I can do with 'em combined with this "Twitter Viewer".

(I wonder how long before they get a C&D letter.)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2026 05:29 AM (O7YUW)

34
Stephen L. Miller
@redsteeze
20h
They really tried to make the Pretti shooting a thing. There was an entire protest movement ready to go.

And then the video of him kicking out a taillight on a federal vehicle and acting like a lunatic with a gun in his waistband came out, and it all went away almost literally overnight.

ABC News
@ABC
1d
Seven months after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by two federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, his grieving family said they want "accountability" in their first television interview.

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:35 AM (odBC9)

35 @ABC
1d
Seven months after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by two federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, his grieving family said they want "accountability" in their first television interview.
Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:35 AM (odBC9)

Ok. We'll dig the bastard up and shoot him again.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 05:36 AM (Ot/FD)

36
Stephen L. Miller
@redsteeze
2h
"what do you do when a cop stops you and you have a gun on your person or in your car"

This is an actual two hour concealed carry and certified NRA instructor course that you take in a classroom.

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:36 AM (odBC9)

37 Do you really want to be acquired by Amazon, Pixy?. Everybody would you be ordering you and you'd be shipped all over the place.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:39 AM (W90Ou)

38 There is a very old saying about " want".

Warai, Amen.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 27, 2026 05:40 AM (FHoaH)

39 I'm going to head up north and not watch the eclipse. The weather should hold long enough so that I can enjoy a campfire and then be sleeping in my tent while the rain extinguishes it.

Posted by: fluffy at August 27, 2026 05:41 AM (V0/Sp)

40 - Go to work
- Come home
- Go to bed
- Wake up as much as possible
- Repeat
- Go to work

There FIFY
("much" = "often")

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 27, 2026 05:41 AM (TFIbA)

41 Are people drunk, stoned or asleep when they come up with these name- "Hugging Face"? Seriously?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:42 AM (W90Ou)

42 @12/Warai-otoko: "{ Work/sleep loop } That right there is a circle that very much needs to become the opposite of unbroken, PDQ."

Remember, nobody ever had an epitaph of "I wish I'd spent more time at the office" on their headstone.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2026 05:42 AM (O7YUW)

43 >>> Are people drunk, stoned or asleep when they come up with these name- "Hugging Face"? Seriously?

Techie humor, most likely. Makes me think of 'face hugging spider'.

Posted by: fluffy at August 27, 2026 05:44 AM (V0/Sp)

44 Adorable Golden Retrievers;

https://tinyurl.com/3p4d59mz

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:45 AM (W90Ou)

45
Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON*
@EsotericCD
13h
So I wrote my own, rather personal, piece about Dolly, at @NRO. You'll have to read it all the way to the end to understand

And I still miss you, ma.

https://tinyurl.com/yh7y7d5r

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 05:46 AM (odBC9)

46 Posted by: fluffy at August 27, 2026 05:44 AM (V0/Sp)

Yes, I was being facetious. I guessed it was tech humor. They should put Pixy in change of tech humor at a huge salary. He's much funnier than whoever came up with "face hugging" . Sorry, if anyone here did😉

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:48 AM (W90Ou)

47 Nice song by Zach Williams and Dolly Parton. "There was Jesus" Scroll down for song. Faithpot site:

https://tinyurl.com/h8vdx67x

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:53 AM (W90Ou)

48 Remember, nobody ever had an epitaph of "I wish I'd spent more time at the office" on their headstone.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 27, 2026 05:42 AM (O7YUW)

heh.

I do wish I spent more time at the office. Field work is the worst.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 27, 2026 05:54 AM (Ot/FD)

49 John Williams is in his 90's. What a great talent and how important music is to films. So much film music from earlier years came from men fleeing the Nazis.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:58 AM (JrHfD)

50 44 Adorable Golden Retrievers;

https://tinyurl.com/3p4d59mz
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 05:45 AM (W90Ou)

..........

Awwww so cute! Thanks for that this morning

Posted by: Molly k. at August 27, 2026 05:58 AM (j/yko)

51 Posted by: Molly k. at August 27, 2026 05:58 AM (j/yko)

You are most welcome!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 06:00 AM (xSAlF)

52
Her Majesty asked me to back up her files, in light of the disk failure I recently suffered. Please remember, Her Majesty has problems with electronics that no other human being ever, has ever, or will ever have.

I sit down at her desk and try to wake her computer up. It is, as usual, sluggish as hell. I decide to shut it down and restart it. I shut it down properly, having closed all the programs and clicked on the Shut Down button.

I wait and restart it. The Windows screen comes up but it says that the password has expired and has to be reset. What password? It's been years that she's had it and if I did set anything up, it would have been with a PIN.

So I have to type in the old password and a new one. I try a bunch of commonly used passwords. None work. Does the computer give me any option to recover my password? No. Is HP any help? No.

I try a number of things suggested online. None work. I try resetting the computer to a restore point. It chews on this for an inordinate time, then says it's done and to restart. I do that. Now Windows won't boot up at all.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 27, 2026 06:18 AM (O0L8i)

53 Evening and morning on a bleary Thor's Day -- at least for me right now. With little sleep Tuesday/Wednesday night for some reason, I slept quite well last night and dreamed something colorful about exploring a vivid interactive website that purported to have screen shots and clips from each of William Shatner's TV and movies. Yet the menu boasted "41 of 41." I *know* he's had more credits than that, so somebody was fibbing. Before I could explore it much, though, the alarm rang.

So, coffee. How're you?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2026 06:18 AM (wzUl9)

54 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2026 06:18 AM (wzUl9

I can't go for a walk today unless I go to the supermarket and walk inside . It's raining heavily.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 27, 2026 06:20 AM (xSAlF)

55 Hadrian, it may be too late but Lazesoft makes a pretty good Windows password cracker.

mornin yall

Posted by: fd at August 27, 2026 06:20 AM (MWfyi)

56 I was thinking I might walk this morning, but the rain is apparently going to move in by 6 am and be pelting us by 7, so I guess not.

Stirling is doing okay on his diet. The IAMS dry food bag says a 12-lb. cat (which is underweight, for him) should get 6 oz. a day. Yet I've been giving him about 4, combined with canned food. The problem is no doubt that he proceeds to eat what Dagny leaves after her first quick nibblings. Thus I have to be even more of a "parent" than I already am, taking up her bowl to protect it from him and setting it back down when she is ready to eat more.

Cats. Can't live with 'em, can't take 'em for a walk. (Well, with exceptions.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2026 06:23 AM (wzUl9)

57 Hadrian, as the say, no good deed goes unpunished

Posted by: Ben Had at August 27, 2026 06:24 AM (FHoaH)

58 57 Hadrian, as the say, no good deed goes unpunished
Posted by: Ben Had at August 27, 2026 06:24 AM (FHoaH)

SO true.

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 06:25 AM (odBC9)

59 @52

>> I try a number of things suggested online.

Remove the drive, put it in an external enclosure, connect it to a functioning Windows machine, if it mounts, copy user data to another drive.

Buy your wife a Mac, connect the drive to the Mac, copy pertinent data to Mac.

You’ll be good for the next decade.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at August 27, 2026 06:26 AM (XV/Pl)

60
Hadrian, as the say, no good deed goes unpunished
Posted by: Ben Had at August 27, 2026 06:24 AM (FHoaH)

"I don't know that. You're the one who set it up."

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 27, 2026 06:27 AM (O0L8i)

61 The house business appears to be on hold. The inspection report came back with issues of mold in the basement, something called "efflorescence" in the crawlspace (which was never sealed against moisture), and moldy smells in the kitchen. Plus no "cold air returns" in the bedrooms. The A/C-heat vents are there, but no vents to return the air, which would make the system work harder and less efficiently (?).

Pawn, and to a lesser degree OrangeEnt, have suggested I walk away. And the house is really a bit small as well, with a lack of closet space.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 27, 2026 06:28 AM (wzUl9)

62 60 Hadrian, as the say, no good deed goes unpunished
Posted by: Ben Had at August 27, 2026 06:24 AM (FHoaH)

"I don't know that. You're the one who set it up."
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 27, 2026 06:27 AM (O0L8i)

There are Morons (the good kind) in your corner.

Posted by: m at August 27, 2026 06:29 AM (odBC9)

63 Now Windows won't boot up at all.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 27, 2026 06:18 AM (O0L8i)
--------------
This is where the hammering started, right?

Posted by: Huck Follywood at August 27, 2026 06:31 AM (iM0GV)

64 When I setup a new PC, I use a local account named "-", with no password. After the setup is complete and I add the user account, domain or otherwise, I will not always delete the "dash" account, and leave it there secretly in case something happens to the user's account.

Posted by: fd at August 27, 2026 06:33 AM (MWfyi)

65 This is where the hammering started, right?

Posted by: Huck Follywood at August 27, 2026 06:31 AM (iM0GV)
-

No! No!

Take the computer to the TXMoMe for target practice.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 27, 2026 06:33 AM (Oj3Pf)

66 63 Now Windows won't boot up at all.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 27, 2026 06:18 AM (O0L8i)

Then all your data is perfectly safe and cannot be hacked!!

Posted by: Always look on the bright side of life at August 27, 2026 06:33 AM (B0NCh)

67 My first cat would run after me down the sidewalk. He was really his own cat who liked me a lot. Very human-centric. He loved when i invited people over.

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 27, 2026 06:34 AM (Fv808)

68 "Then all your data is perfectly safe and cannot be hacked!!
Posted by: Always look on the bright side of life "

It's all there. You do have your key, don't you?

Posted by: Bitlocker at August 27, 2026 06:36 AM (MWfyi)

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