Daily Tech News 16 October 2026

Top Story

Tesla announced its new model Roadster - yes, the one The Verge was whining about. Taking reservations now for delivery in 2028. Or later.

It flies. (Business Insider)

Literally.

I thought it was AI for a moment.

Okay, falling with style, but falling with a lot of style. It can also drive on vertical surfaces... And on the wrong side of horizontal ones.

The flying version is single-seater and not approved for public road use.

Eppure vola.

Tech News

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra is here and it's eh. (Tom's Hardware)

It has Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, which is basically an RTX 5070 graphics card with some ARM cores and 128GB of RAM glued onto it.

If you want to run large AI models on your laptop, it is faster than a MacBook or AMD's competing Ryzen 395 (they really need to update that). But there aren't that many people buying laptops specifically to run 35B LLMs on them.
The Return of the Revenge of Little Bobby Tables. (The Register)

Robert Xavier Tables, you validate your data right now!
Meta's Muse Spark Open, an 816 billion parameter model, is available for download now. (Meta)

All you need is half a terabyte of RAM. And a 32GB graphics card, minimum.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Good morning

Posted by: Tuna at October 16, 2026 04:02 AM (lJ0H4)

2 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at October 16, 2026 04:03 AM (Ia/+0)

3 If you want to run large AI models on your laptop, it is faster than a MacBook or AMD's competing Ryzen 395 (they really need to update that). But there aren't that many people buying laptops specifically to run 35B LLMs on them.

This is a halo product for Silicon Valley millionaires with a lot of free time to play with AI models.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 16, 2026 04:07 AM (6ydKt)

4 The thrusters on the Roadster are pretty cool, can't lie about it.

But I'm at a loss as to the practical use for it in everyday driving.

But, it does point to a future where we might actually get some flying Deloreans going 88 mph.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 16, 2026 04:10 AM (6ydKt)

5 I remember Bannarama well
Heading out driveway, TGIF.

Posted by: Skip at October 16, 2026 04:11 AM (1J4ts)

6
I was just reading up on how that Ship deorbit and catch will likely work. Safety is the big thing. You don't want a big honking hulk of metal coming down over a populated area out of control.

How you avoid that is, well, rocket science indeed. If things go awry, you can blow up, flight termination. But you need to do that up high, so the pieces will burn up. If get too low, blowing it up would be even worse than letting it crash.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 16, 2026 04:17 AM (w6EFb)

7 Pixy,

I posted a couple of Roadster links on the ONT. Here's the tech one:

https://tinyurl.com/43yyuye3

And for some entertainment, I bring you this Newsom memory moment:

https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k

Hey, Gary, how's that bullet train project coming along?!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 16, 2026 04:20 AM (skLNB)

8
It will be on a 30 degree or so inclination. When launched that will be on the down leg (descending node arc). If they came back on that down leg, the deorbit burn and all that would be over the continental US, coming NW to SE.

So, they stay up there long enough to allow Erf to rotate about 1/2 turn underneath, so that it will be coming back in the ascending, up-leg arc. That will put the critical deorbit and reentry fireball over the Pacific. It will just have to cross over Mexico, aiming for the Gulf. If something goes south, they'll head for a crash in the Gulf.

Only if all goes perfectly well will that steer and light up the engines to maneuver back to Starbase.

If something goes wrong during the final terminal phase, big boom at the tower. They will not blow it up, just let 'er crash. And nobody will be close enough for any danger...

This is some wild stuff.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 16, 2026 04:25 AM (w6EFb)

9 w00t

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 04:26 AM (odBC9)

10 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at October 16, 2026 04:36 AM (n17eQ)

11 And for some entertainment, I bring you this Newsom memory moment:

https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k

Hey, Gary, how's that bullet train project coming along?!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 16, 2026 04:20 AM (skLNB)

The Dems really do excel at acting like pissed off ex-girlfriends talking about their ex.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 16, 2026 04:36 AM (6ydKt)

12 >>>Tesla announced its new model Roadster - ...
It flies. (Business Insider)

Yeah, we'll fly to the east, we'll fly to the west
There'll be no place we can't call our own
Yeah, we'll fly to the north, we'll fly to the south
Every planet will become our home

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 04:46 AM (odBC9)

13 >>>Tesla announced its new model Roadster - ...
It flies. (Business Insider)
Eppure vola.

Wikipedia
And_yet_it_moves
E pur si muove or Eppur si muove is an Italian phrase commonly attributed to the Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei

vola = it flies

Lovely!

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 04:51 AM (odBC9)

14 TLDR

Neural Networks Are Already Clean

The cause of polysemanticity in early model organisms wasn’t superposition, but several ordinary, mostly fixable issues. We can now understand most neurons in models up to trillions of parameters, and think the outlook for mechanistic interpretability may be far better than we thought.

https://already-clean.goodfire.com

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 04:58 AM (odBC9)

15 7 And for some entertainment, I bring you this Newsom memory moment:

https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 16, 2026 04:20 AM (skLNB)

Cage match! Elon and what's-his-name!

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:08 AM (odBC9)

16 7 And for some entertainment, I bring you this Newsom memory moment:

https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 16, 2026 04:20 AM (skLNB)

SOUND UP!

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:09 AM (odBC9)

17
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 16, 2026 05:10 AM (AMvSw)

18 3 If you want to run large AI models on your laptop, it is faster than a MacBook or AMD's competing Ryzen 395 (they really need to update that). But there aren't that many people buying laptops specifically to run 35B LLMs on them.

This is a halo product for Silicon Valley millionaires with a lot of free time to play with AI models.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 16, 2026 04:07 AM (6ydKt)

Hacker News
A halo product is something that isn't there to be the real flagship that's driving the revenue, but instead to be the ultra-cool item that people really lust after, associate that with the brand, then buy one of the lower end models.

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:14 AM (odBC9)

19 Disclaimer: Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Rejoinder: Great Scott!

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 16, 2026 05:15 AM (O7YUW)

20 I thought this was a very touching devotional from a man from Florida writing about his own father and his Heavenly Father, and based on Psalm 28:6-9:

https://tinyurl.com/bde7a8w4

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 16, 2026 05:16 AM (JrHfD)

21 16 7 And for some entertainment, I bring you this Newsom memory moment:

https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 16, 2026 04:20 AM (skLNB)

SOUND UP!
Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:09 AM (odBC9)

This is so great. I'm tempted to put it on endless replay.

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:18 AM (odBC9)

22 Old time hymn- "Be still, my soul"

https://tinyurl.com/mrx5ztdw

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 16, 2026 05:25 AM (JrHfD)

23 Have a good day folks. May you know you are a blessing to others . Prayers for people going back and forth to Corsicana and for a safe and happy time there.

I need a break from political news. Hopefully see you on Monday.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 16, 2026 05:27 AM (JrHfD)

24 14 TLDR

Neural Networks Are Already Clean

The cause of polysemanticity in early model organisms wasn’t superposition, but several ordinary, mostly fixable issues. We can now understand most neurons in models up to trillions of parameters, and think the outlook for mechanistic interpretability may be far better than we thought.

https://already-clean.goodfire.com
Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 04:58 AM (odBC9)

The author is Nick Cammarata.

• an AI safety researcher who specializes in neural network interpretability

• previously at OpenAI

• currently conducts research at the AI safety startup Goodfire

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:34 AM (odBC9)

25 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at October 16, 2026 05:38 AM (Hbeqj)

26 I love studying IT
We just had the cyber security exam including metasploit, metasploitable, setoolkit, 2 stenography programs, Wireshark, rsa, hashing, pki for for the signatures AND certificates, sql injection, xss, and even manually deciding a block cypher.
That's the exam after 3 hour lectures that sounded like a guy reading a dictionary, expecting total recall of the SQL commands we were told about 3 months ago, covered in the same week as JavaScript and php.
3 questions were about things i didn't have in my lecture notes, they were touched on and moved on from that quick.
Everyone i spoke to was walking out and complaining of lack of time to answer all the questions.
But still the masochist in me finds it kind of fun.
I should have just stayed on the forklift.

Posted by: Nato at October 16, 2026 05:42 AM (XAyZ8)

27 So Elon's playing with cold gas thrusters on vehicles - a safety system to notice when you're about to be in a pileup to automatically get you vertical over the mess ahead and place you safely (relatively) a few car lengths ahead and in a spot off the roadway where you won't be involved in the pile-up?

NEAT!

But you just know his mind is already locked on the next obvious progression: "Can we use gravity against gravity itself? Can we make an anti-grav thruster system? What kind of power would that take? What's the first step, and what's blocking us? Let's work on solving that first and let's design some experiments..."

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 16, 2026 05:44 AM (O7YUW)

28 26 I love studying IT
Posted by: Nato at October 16, 2026 05:42 AM (XAyZ

cool

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 05:47 AM (odBC9)

29 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 05:48 AM (V0/Sp)

30 Evening and morning, satellites and satraps! The great and beneficent ACE welcomes you! Please extinguish all doobies and other burning objects and return your seats to the upright position.

It's Friday, the consummation devoutly to be wished!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 05:49 AM (wzUl9)

31 Eppure vola

No eye deer what this means, so I plugged it into a search engine, thinking I would learn the meaning.

First English language page listed is this one.

Ouros bouros

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 05:52 AM (V0/Sp)

32 @23/FenelonSpoke: "I need a break from political news."

A sane response to the crazy that's out there these days. You take care and keep yourself well.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 16, 2026 05:52 AM (O7YUW)

33 The local weather mavens keep promising cooler air overnight: lows in the 60s Sat. morning and upper 50s on Sunday, with highs about 74. Ohhh-kay, if you say so.

In the meantime I'll work out lightly this morning, then see if their predictions come true.

The Tesla "flying" roadster is cool. Perhaps there will be flying/"road roll" competitions someday, the way we have road races now.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 05:53 AM (wzUl9)

34 @26/Nato: In my experience, that treadmill you're getting on never slows down and only continues to accelerate. Just be ready for that...

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 16, 2026 05:54 AM (O7YUW)

35 >>> A halo product is something that isn't there to be the real flagship that's driving the revenue, but instead to be the ultra-cool item that people really lust after, associate that with the brand, then buy one of the lower end models.

A concept car

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 05:57 AM (V0/Sp)

36 Eppure vola

No eye deer what this means, so I plugged it into a search engine, thinking I would learn the meaning.

First English language page listed is this one.

Ouros bouros
Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026

***
My guess was "Behold, it flies." Apparently I was close. Pixy was riffing on Galileo's eppur si muove, "And yet, it moves" line, saying about the Tesla, "And yet, it flies."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 05:57 AM (wzUl9)

37 So Elon's playing with cold gas thrusters on vehicles
****

Wagers on how long, after the cars are available, that someone hacks the control systems and makes the cars dance?

Posted by: clarence at October 16, 2026 06:03 AM (tiV+x)

38 The black cat is playing rough with the little gray one, cornering her and making her growl at him. I've spritzed him with a little water to break it up.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 06:04 AM (wzUl9)

39 What was the outcome on the elementary school shooting I saw mentioned here yesterday afternoon? The local Fox outlet had someone saying that a civilian (?) with a gun ended it, and the gunman, before kids were shot, or something like that. True?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 06:05 AM (wzUl9)

40 I've been weeding through the For You recommendations in the Great Algorithm for a few days, and at this very moment, all 9 of the top For You recommendations are things I would in fact like to look at!

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:11 AM (odBC9)

41 Because Talarico defeated Jasmine Crockett in the Dem primary, he will get a very small black vote. That is normally 26% of the Democrat vote. How anyone thinks that actual lunatic is going to defeat Ken Paxton without the black vote is a mystery that has no solution. Nobody in TX wants Talarico's open border, anti oil, vegan, increased taxation, and pro Trans policies. Democrats always out poll Repubs in the state because Red Texans don't talk to pollsters. Talarico doesn't even have "Beto's I'm a fake Hispanic" appeal. Who are Talarico's voters? Hippies from my generation - who were always a small minority, easily duped young people - who frankly don't show up to vote, and easily fooled stupid people. Dumb and Dumber is not a winning coalition.

Posted by: An Observation sez Trump is my President at October 16, 2026 06:12 AM (WDknQ)

42 G'mornin' everyone!

awww, cold gas thrusters, rats ... here I was hoping Elon was implementing the Kzinti Lesson.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 16, 2026 06:13 AM (VyBeY)

43 41 Red Texans don't talk to pollsters.
Posted by: An Observation sez Trump is my President at October 16, 2026 06:12 AM (WDknQ)

smart

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:18 AM (odBC9)

44 42 G'mornin' everyone!

awww, cold gas thrusters, rats ... here I was hoping Elon was implementing the Kzinti Lesson.
Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 16, 2026

***
HA!

I wonder if Larry Niven drives a Tesla. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 06:18 AM (wzUl9)

45 >>> My guess was "Behold, it flies." Apparently I was close. Pixy was riffing on Galileo's eppur si muove, "And yet, it moves" line, saying about the Tesla, "And yet, it flies."

I fed it to duck.ai and replied in Italian. Needed to be clear that I am an English speaker.

It gave explanation and politely corrected me when I replied 'Grazi!'

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 06:18 AM (V0/Sp)

46 Is everyone so horrified that I can't spell a basic Italian word that they slunk away?

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 06:29 AM (V0/Sp)

47 46 Is everyone so horrified that I can't spell a basic Italian word that they slunk away?
Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 06:29 AM (V0/Sp)

Si.

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:31 AM (odBC9)

48 I can imagine the SpaceX roadster in a Bond film.
In the same vein, I can’t imagine the Chinese making or allowing use within China.

Posted by: SMOD at October 16, 2026 06:31 AM (AFudc)

49 46 Is everyone so horrified that I can't spell a basic Italian word that they slunk away?

Nah. I was dealing with the horror of someone leaving their underwear on the floor of a co-worker's cube. I'm drinking coffee to forget that and feeling better now.

Posted by: NR Pax at October 16, 2026 06:32 AM (jjoN6)

50 But can Elon's roadster make ice cubes in the desert?

Posted by: cplin at October 16, 2026 06:34 AM (CiQE7)

51 Bonjourno, mon ami in little grey boxes! The weather has changed dramatically here in Cowtown. It's breezy and 60 with the temps continuing to fall off a little more.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at October 16, 2026 06:39 AM (3Ope8)

52 @49/NR Pax: Guessing a couple of co-workers "got busy" in that cubicle overnight.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 16, 2026 06:39 AM (O7YUW)

53 The black cat is playing rough with the little gray one, cornering her and making her growl at him. I've spritzed him with a little water to break it up.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 16, 2026 06:04 AM (wzUl9)
---
Hexie's been getting rough with Chloe lately and I have to do the same thing.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 16, 2026 06:40 AM (FZ29D)

54 >>>And on the wrong side of horizontal ones.

"wrong side"

h8er! side-ist!

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:41 AM (odBC9)

55 Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:31 AM (odBC9)

Le not juste

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 06:41 AM (V0/Sp)

56 But can Elon's roadster make ice cubes in the desert?

Posted by: cplin at October 16, 2026 06:34 AM (CiQE7)
-

It can make sand which is there.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 16, 2026 06:42 AM (Y+4g7)

57 52 @49/NR Pax: Guessing a couple of co-workers "got busy" in that cubicle overnight.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant

No idea. Don't wanna know. Sincerely hoping that this was a joke of some kind.

Posted by: NR Pax at October 16, 2026 06:42 AM (jjoN6)

58 57 52 @49/NR Pax: Guessing a couple of co-workers "got busy" in that cubicle overnight.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant

No idea. Don't wanna know. Sincerely hoping that this was a joke of some kind.
Posted by: NR Pax at October 16, 2026 06:42 AM (jjoN6)

Glad that the evidence was not in your cubicle.

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:43 AM (odBC9)

59 mornin yall. The cops arrested a worker at the state fair for child porn.

"Police emphasized that there is no known ongoing threat to the public."

Until they let him out again. Which they will, if they have not already.

Posted by: fd at October 16, 2026 06:45 AM (MWfyi)

60 @38/Wolfus: Grab him by the scruff of the neck when he gets like that. It won't hurt him, and it should trigger the "big cat picking me up, I am kitten" instinct (hopefully, it worked on all of mine...)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 16, 2026 06:45 AM (O7YUW)

61 59 mornin yall. The cops arrested a worker at the state fair for child porn.

"Police emphasized that there is no known ongoing threat to the public."

Until they let him out again. Which they will, if they have not already.
Posted by: fd at October 16, 2026 06:45 AM (MWfyi)

There was a story about somebody in Florida getting 8 years. Not a producer; just had the stuff on his phone.

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:46 AM (odBC9)

62 Effing autocucumber!

Le mot juste

Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 06:46 AM (V0/Sp)

63 62 Effing autocucumber!

Le mot juste
Posted by: fluffy at October 16, 2026 06:46 AM (V0/Sp)

Si.

Posted by: m at October 16, 2026 06:48 AM (odBC9)

64 words from Nobunaga:

https://tinyurl.com/53d8rrcp

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 16, 2026 06:51 AM (VyBeY)

65 Still reading and commenting on the previous ONT.
If the kelpers ( residents of Falklands/ Malvinas ) want to remain participants in western culture, they probably need to unite with Argentina, rather than the British Caliphate.

Posted by: Fenderbender at October 16, 2026 06:56 AM (1FEc1)

66 The weather has changed dramatically here in Cowtown. It's breezy and 60 with the temps continuing to fall off a little more.
Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead

It was in the upper 80's yesterday here in Nashville land. Today the high right now is 68 with temps falling all day to around 55 at sunset. I think summer had its last gasp yesterday.

Posted by: Tuna at October 16, 2026 06:57 AM (lJ0H4)

67 Glad that the evidence was not in your cubicle.
Posted by: m

Agreed. Our boss is reaching out to management to see how they want things handled. The fact that there is probably a procedure in place for something like that depresses me.

Posted by: NR Pax at October 16, 2026 06:59 AM (jjoN6)

68 There was a story about somebody in Florida getting 8 years. Not a producer; just had the stuff on his phone.

--

I was curious...after a story we had last week, has the law caught up with this diseased modern world? Will AI kid pron pictures get you in legal trouble as well? If not, they'd better get busy in the legistatures because it's already here and will only get worse.

Posted by: Lady in Black at October 16, 2026 06:59 AM (qBdHI)

69 Good morning morons especially at the thing at the place.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2026 07:02 AM (RIvkX)

70 Mornin', y'all. Rather brisk this morning, but it was lovely - velvety night sky, the few stars bright enough to overcome the local lighting, and little white puffy clouds hanging low.

Posted by: RandomDave at October 16, 2026 07:05 AM (aJQbY)

71 https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k

Yesterday we were discussing the nature of stupidity and here it is, illustrated with legs crossed.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 16, 2026 07:07 AM (RIvkX)

72 https://tinyurl.com/kfkmnb6k

Yesterday we were discussing the nature of stupidity and here it is, illustrated with legs crossed.
****

Jeez, put a better warning on that. It's way to early in the morning for that.

Posted by: clarence at October 16, 2026 07:11 AM (tiV+x)

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