Daily Tech News 30 July 2026

Top Story

The United States government just banned Roombas. (The Verge)

Well, it didn't, and wouldn't have at all if it hadn't previously blocked the acquisition of US company iRobot by US company Amazon leaving the market to Chinese competitors. And they're only being blocked over well-founded fears of being used for surveillance just like every other thing in our lives these days with more functional purpose than a Chia Pet.

If you like your Roomba you can keep your Roomba, and existing models of Roomba can continue to be imported, but new models of Roomba - and of any other imported robot - will need to be certified.

Tech News

Why would the US government consider robots to be a security ris-

U.S. company Satyress is developing threehalves, a centaur-style robot designed for dangerous environments such as wildfires, rubble searches, toxic areas and confined spaces. The system combines a humanoid upper body with a quadruped mobility platform. #USA #Robotics #UGV #AI pic.twitter.com/ViPprQ1lrZ
— Drone Wars (@Drone_Wars_) July 28, 2026

Got it. Drone strikes it is.
Huawei's new MateBook Pro S weighs just 798 grams, which is vanishingly light for a 14" model. (Notebook Check)

Only problem is that it runs an in-house Kirin XE90 Arm CPU, which has decent multi-threaded performance thanks to its 10 dual-thread cores, but pretty lousy single-threaded performance. Expect performance like a 2017-era laptop in that regard.
Speaking of which, I just realised that the new Minisforum NAB9S has a 13900HK CPU rather than a 13900HX. So while it is a current model that takes DDR4 SODIMMs (of which I have an abundance) and is a fair bit faster than my existing hardware that uses that memory, it is also a fair bit slower than the full HX model.

It's also relatively inexpensive because it's available as a barebones model, and has a 2.5" bay for a SATA SSD if I should happen to find where mine have gone.
How to run Gemma 26B on an 8GB Apple Silicon system. (GitHub)

Gemma 26B requires 52GB of VRAM to run as it ships with 16-bit values. The process squimshes it down to 4-bit quantisation and then caches the core (using about 2GB of RAM in total) and streams the rest from SSD.

Which is great because while you can certainly run Gemma 26B-A4B (4-bit quantised) on a 16GB graphics card without hacks, this sort of trick would allow you to run some 200B parameter models on the same hardware - the scale where AI models stop being stupid and useless.
And if you have an Acemagic F9A, 1.6T parameters. (WCCFTech)

You'd want a fast SSD for that, though, because that would be a lot of data to fling about.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Don't throw your junk in my back yard, my back yard's full.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:45 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at July 30, 2026 04:50 AM (Ia/+0)

2 !!

Posted by: clarence at July 30, 2026 04:50 AM (LLFho)

3 Poke.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 30, 2026 04:54 AM (BLOW1)

4 That's better!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 30, 2026 04:54 AM (BLOW1)

5 if I should happen to find where mine have gone.
****

A mine is a terrible thing to lose.

Posted by: clarence at July 30, 2026 04:56 AM (LLFho)

6 Centaurs, my perfect man.

Posted by: Ben Had at July 30, 2026 04:57 AM (abScH)

7
From last thread, my mind is still boggling at the genius of Isaac Newton, reading on the history of Principia. This I'm ashamed I didn't know.

Newton figured out the earth was an oblate spheroid due to rotation, and thus had a "spare tire" mass distribution. He then realized the tidal effects of his inverse square law. And them promptly derived and explained precession of the equinoxes, and the tides on earth.

Now, he had it figured out, but made some errors in those calculations, which were later corrected for the true expressions. But he figured out how tidal forces would torque the earth's axis and slosh the oceans around.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at July 30, 2026 05:03 AM (w6EFb)

8 That first image is disturbing on so many levels. A goat headed quadruped with a chain saw in its hands. Really?

Posted by: clarence at July 30, 2026 05:04 AM (LLFho)

9
The tools for Skynet are being built. When AI decides to kill all humans, it will have the tools right there do it.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at July 30, 2026 05:05 AM (w6EFb)

10 Mornin' Hordelings.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 30, 2026 05:06 AM (O7YUW)

11
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at July 30, 2026 05:10 AM (AMvSw)

12 Good morning, everyone!

Yesterday on our walk we saw by the boardwalk -next to the marshy area morning glories- white and pink ones and ones with pink stripes inside the white flowers. We also saw dragonflies with the most beautiful blue iridescent heads.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 30, 2026 05:12 AM (W90Ou)

13 And another "God incident", yesterday we went to the market and the check out guy was a black man with the name Solomon. I admired his great biblical name. I don't see that name very often outside the Bible.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 30, 2026 05:14 AM (W90Ou)

14 If AI factories need so much cooling water why wouldn't they use a cooling towet like nuclear power does?

Posted by: Skip at July 30, 2026 05:15 AM (Ia/+0)

15 "U.S. company Satyress is developing threehalves, a centaur-style robot designed for dangerous environments such as"

Those 4 pictures are seriously creeping me out.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 30, 2026 05:15 AM (O7YUW)

16 And their own poer plants?

Posted by: Skip at July 30, 2026 05:15 AM (Ia/+0)

17 Greetings and good morning, everyone! Yesterday was my birthday so the wife and I went to her mom's house. We went to a local butcher for my traditional gift of enough meat to last us for several months. Had hamburgers at her place and my wife made me a mud pie.

Life is good. And now I'm back at work.

Posted by: NR Pax at July 30, 2026 05:20 AM (jjoN6)

18 Man from NJ writes on " A sincere heart" and Numbers 7:10-17 in this Upper Room devotional;:

https://tinyurl.com/49h29j3n

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 30, 2026 05:20 AM (W90Ou)

19 Not sure exactly what I am getting into today but you have a great day

Posted by: Skip at July 30, 2026 05:25 AM (Ia/+0)

20 Posted by: NR Pax at July 30, 2026 05:20 AM (jjoN6)

A most happy birthday to you! I'm glad that you had a good day yesterday!.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 30, 2026 05:27 AM (W90Ou)

21 Good morning Horde , thx Pixy
@17 NR Pax , happy belated birthday. Many more

Posted by: Smell the Glove at July 30, 2026 05:29 AM (BlDDt)

22 Hello, I must be going, to bed,

Posted by: Gmac-WTF did you think was going to happen at July 30, 2026 05:30 AM (Q/FnY)

23 My back yard looks like hell, a jungle, but nobody has complained yet. Let the flora and fauna have their season. Is that illegal?

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at July 30, 2026 05:32 AM (8E0Ba)

24 Belated BOING!

Bill Gates and good intentions:

https://tinyurl.com/yrz769xj

Out to wine & cheese lunch at a nearby vineyard with Mrs. BD and her niece and husband.

Maybe l8r. But then I have grilling to do.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at July 30, 2026 05:33 AM (yMCWt)

25 Maybe l8r. But then I have grilling to do.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at July 30, 2026 05:33 AM (yMCWt)

Man. I can't imagine what it's even like cooking on a grill that goes right to left.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 05:44 AM (Ot/FD)

26 "Precious Lord, take my hand." Hank Williams Sr:

https://tinyurl.com/4t275dyu

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at July 30, 2026 05:46 AM (DzHyO)

27 Mornin'

Got back from a walk. It's nice out. A rare thing in Babylon DC in late July.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come. at July 30, 2026 05:48 AM (sAmhv)

28 22 Hello, I must be going, to bed,
Posted by: Gmac-WTF did you think was going to happen at July 30, 2026 05:30 AM (Q/FnY)

Me too. Good night all!

Posted by: SciVo at July 30, 2026 05:48 AM (Sy6m/)

29 The centaur-bot is kind of a great idea, really. Bipedal frames are less stable. And a robot that needs all its limbs just to stand up is far less useful.

Also, the "centaur" form factor is already a thing we can make a mental reference to, even if it's somewhat mythical.... Imagine how much creepier it would be if it had three legs and two arms, instead.

Or five.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 05:49 AM (Ot/FD)

30 Imagine one of these things that has a little papoose or a jumpseat on the front of it instead of a robot upper torso... Hop in, hook that thing up to a neuralink, scoot around a jobsite on it all day...

Would be a tradesman's dream.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 05:53 AM (Ot/FD)

31 >>>"Precious Lord, take my hand." Hank Williams Sr:

https://tinyurl.com/4t275dyu

Posted by: FenelonSpoke

>We alway put on Hank III when we go golfing. Very motivational.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at July 30, 2026 05:54 AM (8E0Ba)

32 Evening and morning, all! 'Tis Thor's Day!

The centaur robot . . . why, why, why the goat head on it? Was somebody thinking of Black Philip, the evil goat in that The Witch movie? Otherwise it's not a bad idea: quadruped body for movement and stability, arms attached to a human torso for manipulation of objects.

Come to think of it, almost any head they put on it would have been creepy -- even a cat's head. So, never mind.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 30, 2026 05:54 AM (wzUl9)

33 Would be a tradesman's dream.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 05:53 AM (Ot/FD)

.... at least until the site safety inspector rolls up and gives you the business because your centaur scooter's robo-hooves don't have steel tip boots on, anyway....

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 05:54 AM (Ot/FD)

34 There was a robot riding device, a "robass," in Anthony Boucher's short SF story "The Quest for Saint Aquin." I don' recall much else about the story, but the robass could talk and conversed with the human protagonist.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 30, 2026 05:57 AM (wzUl9)

35 w00t late

Posted by: m at July 30, 2026 05:58 AM (Zm7n5)

36 give it magnetic feet. Strap your welder to it. Get a pipeline joint done in a single pass.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 05:59 AM (Ot/FD)

37 An m is never late. An m arrives precisely when it plans to.

Posted by: Ben Had at July 30, 2026 05:59 AM (abScH)

38 >>>every other thing in our lives these days with more functional purpose than a Chia Pet

haha!
Pixy humor/humour; yay!

Posted by: m at July 30, 2026 05:59 AM (Zm7n5)

39 >>>While would

Why?

Posted by: m at July 30, 2026 06:01 AM (Zm7n5)

40 Get a whole army of the things and you could put a warship together in a couple weeks.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 30, 2026 06:03 AM (Ot/FD)

41 Today, I'm off to have my hair cut, all of them; gas up the car, hit Whole Foods for something Linda has a coupon for, etc. I'll leave around 8:45 and hope to be back before 11:15.

This is supposed to be the last day we hit 95 F. for a little while. The news mavens on the Fox outlet are babbling about what they call a "weak front" coming through on Sunday after some storms, and then "less humid" conditions on Monday. Yeah, a dizzying drop from 89% humidity to 85. Wow, my skin's gonna need moisturizer.

The furballs are fine; it's time for me to take their food out of the fridge and soak their bowls clean.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 30, 2026 06:03 AM (wzUl9)

42 From the ONT, I had to LOL. McBee SC is tiny. Yeah, these guys are STOOPID.

Several years ago, another town had a police force too big for its needs and was writing tickets left and right. No actual fraud, IIRC. Turbeville.

SLED nailed them. State law forbids that kind of thing.

Posted by: no one of any consequence at July 30, 2026 06:04 AM (qFwJc)

43 >>>caches the core

A Beach Boys song, I think?

Cache the core
And you're sittin' on top of the world

Posted by: m at July 30, 2026 06:08 AM (Zm7n5)

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