Daily Tech News 7 August 2026

Top Story

A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $942 million under a law that so far as I can tell is both unconstitutionally vague and entirely inapplicable. (WSJ / MSN)

Appeals lawyers making bank again.
Meanwhile OpenAI has fired back at Apple saying that if they were able to steal all of Apple's trade secrets then they weren't all that secret, were they? (Tech Crunch)

I'm not sure that is how it works, Sam.

Tech News

AirLLM is a new Python library that streams data on demand from SSD to VRAM for AI tasks, allowing you to run a 2.8 trillion parameter model like Kimi K3 in just 4GB of memory, at a speedy 292 seconds per token. (GitHub)

So only about 10,000 times slower than what is considered acceptable performance.
China has invented a new self-repairing dress made of living fungus. (Dezeen)

No.
Measuring the Pareto Frontier of AI models. (DeepSWE)

A Pareto Frontier is a line drawn on a chart through a set of solutions that are each the best at a different task, but there is no single winner.

An interesting point is that GPT 5.6 Luna - which I have never tried - is nearly as good as Claude Fable but much, much cheaper, with the total for the test suite coming to $0.61 vs. Fable's $21.63.

It's even more jarring when compared to Anthropic's supposedly cheapest model, Sonnet, which is weaker than Luna and cost $26.40 to run the suite.
TSMC is sitting on a billion dollars worth of Apple A20 CPUs waiting for DRAM chips to pair them with. (WCCFTech)

Might want to take a seat. You could be here a while.
Lenovo laptops in China have been spotted shipping with memory from TWSC (no relation). (Notebook Check)

TWSC is not in the Big Three. It's not even in the Big Five, counting CXMT and Nanya. I'm not sure where it ranks.
Elon Musk's Terafab is looking to hire a memory process engineer. (WCCFTech)

They'd be silly if they weren't.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: That's actually kind of cheap. But I don't need more computers right now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:34 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 04:36 AM (odBC9)

2 G'day everyone
TGIF

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2026 04:36 AM (Ia/+0)

3 Greetings

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 07, 2026 04:36 AM (ussCl)

4 Poof!

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 07, 2026 04:38 AM (ussCl)

5 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at August 07, 2026 04:38 AM (pLaQB)

6 And we are back, in my alternate reality

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 07, 2026 04:38 AM (ussCl)

7 The ad was really fine with me last night and this morning.
Refresh and it pops up for a second then disappears. Yet can't comment until I get it back, it's not visible, swat it away then could comment. Finding the invisible ad was near impossible.

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2026 04:38 AM (Ia/+0)

8 >>>A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $942 million

It's the top news story on BBC.
Accompanied by a photo, [accompanied by a photo blurb].

[Zuckerberg, wearing black sunglasses and a dark polo shirt, outisde with a green background]

Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant

The ruling is in addition to $375m in fines Meta was already ordered to pay in the case, for a total of $942m.

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 04:42 AM (odBC9)

9
Skip, if you're running chrome, I have a recipe for you.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 07, 2026 04:43 AM (mmrXZ)

10 what they meant was

[evil Zuckerberg, wearing evil black sunglasses and an evil dark polo shirt, outisde with an evil green background]

I ain't fixin' their typo.

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 04:44 AM (odBC9)

11 Yeah phone has chrome

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2026 04:44 AM (Ia/+0)

12
That Kim Carnes had quite a voice.

Might have a nice voorwerp as well.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 07, 2026 04:46 AM (w6EFb)

13 >>>China has invented a new self-repairing dress made of living fungus.

Like Chia pets!

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 04:53 AM (odBC9)

14
Kim Carnes is 81 now. Damn, I'm getting old.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 07, 2026 05:00 AM (w6EFb)

15 A beloved town Santa in Virginia gives his kidney to someone in need:

https://tinyurl.com/mwd62hj9

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 07, 2026 05:05 AM (xPsv8)

16 - It pops up again, I'm gone for the day again.

Posted by: TeeJ at August 07, 2026 05:06 AM (pkz2K)

17
Damin Toell
@damintoell
14h
Omfg

Sholto David
@addictedtoigno1
20h
A tool used to rephrase plagiarised text changed "final solution" to "mass killing of an ethnic group" in a chemistry paper. Now retracted thanks to a PubPeer user who spotted this.

To judge protein-inferred oxidative damage, a soil test was administered. A phosphate safeguard answer was used to regulate the pH to 7.8, influencing the total response book to 30 mL. The backlash combination was able by joining 1.75 mL of Triton, 1.5 mL of methionine, and 1 mL of NBT.

Subsequently, 1 mL of the mass killing of an ethnic group was opposed to 20 mL of the skin sample and unprotected to light for 7 min.

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 05:06 AM (odBC9)

18 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at August 07, 2026 05:07 AM (V0/Sp)

19 Scripture passages when we're feeling worried:

https://tinyurl.com/2p8x6hdj

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 07, 2026 05:08 AM (xPsv8)

20 and followup

Sholto David
@addictedtoigno1
6h
The whole paper is ridiculous. Nothing to do with translation software which would not make this mistake. This is one of a category of papers cynically manipulated to beat plagiarism detection tools. Just search "tortured phrases" for more information or read the PubPeer link.

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 05:09 AM (odBC9)

21
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 07, 2026 05:10 AM (AMvSw)

22 - buh-bye

Posted by: TeeJ at August 07, 2026 05:10 AM (pkz2K)

23 Nrg.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 07, 2026 05:11 AM (O7YUW)

24 16 - It pops up again, I'm gone for the day again.
Posted by: TeeJ

Its going to pop up. Either get an ad blocker, turn Java off in the browser, or just deal with it. I'm at work and can't do much about it. The overlords don't like the minions to adjust settings on there toys. (shrugs)

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at August 07, 2026 05:12 AM (pLaQB)

25 The real damage done to New Mexican children is done by the State of New Mexico itself with the prime example being the incredibly dysfunctional public school system here that has ranked worst in the country for decades. Close behind was the Communist, nominally Democrat, governor shutting down the schools for over a year during covid and forcing kids to spend their School days unsupervised in front of computer screens where they got an even worse "public school education."

This whole Meta lawsuit has exactly nothing to do with protecting children and everything to do with bagging a scalp so the extreme left-wing state government political hacks can go to useless conferences can brag, collect an awards, and get hammered on martinis. In a matter of couple years this settlement money will have disappeared into being allocated for salaries and pensions for the government peeps and the kids will be right back to doing what they're doing today.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 07, 2026 05:13 AM (KcT4I)

26 from a commenter @addictedtoigno1

"Tortured phrases" found in computer-science papers

big data-->colossal information
artificial intelligence-->counterfeit consciousness
deep neural network-->profound neural organization
remaining energy-->leftover vitality
cloud computing-->haze figuring
signal to noise-->flag to commotion
random value-->irregular esteem

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 05:16 AM (odBC9)

27 Greetings and good morning one and all. Now that all the appointments for the week are done, I can focus on work and bracing for the MRI next Thursday.

Posted by: NR Pax at August 07, 2026 05:16 AM (lXoJ5)

28 If you remember yesterday's "Apache" video, I ended up spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what one of the guitars even was. Come to find that the tall in the cowboy hat was Nokie Edwards (1935-201

, and the guitar was custom-made for him by Tony Hunt.

I don't know what [features scrubbed because they apparently look like spam] are, but it has them. You can see and hear it clearly here:

The Ventures - Tequila (Japan 1984)
https://youtu.be/JGgDDiCfXDk

Posted by: SciVo at August 07, 2026 05:16 AM (Sy6m/)

29 Man writes on 1st Peter 5:6-11 and "God is greater":

https://tinyurl.com/3uwbt8wu

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 07, 2026 05:17 AM (xPsv8)

30 Oh, and it's my brother's birthday and this is his week off. Things are going well.

Posted by: NR Pax at August 07, 2026 05:18 AM (lXoJ5)

31 Let's see if this feature gets past the filter:

"Bigsby palm pedals on 2nd and 3rd strings"

Posted by: SciVo at August 07, 2026 05:18 AM (Sy6m/)

32 It's Friday, it's Friday! Happy, happy Friday!

*twirl*

Posted by: Rosasharn at August 07, 2026 05:18 AM (PzBTm)

33 Okay, so there's one other feature on Nokie's custom guitar that triggers the "looks like spam" reaction. It probably isn't important, but let's see if I break it up...

Scruggs
tuning peg
on low E

Posted by: SciVo at August 07, 2026 05:20 AM (Sy6m/)

34 32 It's Friday, it's Friday! Happy, happy Friday!

*twirl*
Posted by: Rosasharn at August 07, 2026 05:18 AM (PzBTm)

Yay!

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 05:21 AM (odBC9)

35 "Oh, and it's my brother's birthday..."

Mine too. Another tear gone and I'm still here.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2026 05:23 AM (lJ0H4)

36 Tear=year. Stupid auto cucumber.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2026 05:25 AM (lJ0H4)

37 Nonidea what I am going to do when I have to leave well before 5am

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2026 05:28 AM (Ia/+0)

38 I just woke up from a nightmare. I accidentally toggled some button combination on my iPhone that converted the camera to “Taser” mode and I couldn’t get out of it.

Posted by: Fenderbender at August 07, 2026 05:29 AM (1FEc1)

39 Happy birthday, Tuna! God bless you!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 07, 2026 05:31 AM (gsYaF)

40 Thanks Fen.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2026 05:31 AM (lJ0H4)

41 Fix your he pop up he’ll Pixy please! It’s 10 times worse this week than it ever had been - had to clear pop ups twice just to make a single post.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 07, 2026 05:32 AM (pfrqN)

42 Don't think of it as getting older, Tuna. Think of it as "I have survived everything life has thrown at me again!"

Posted by: NR Pax at August 07, 2026 05:35 AM (lXoJ5)

43 38 I just woke up from a nightmare. I accidentally toggled some button combination on my iPhone that converted the camera to “Taser” mode and I couldn’t get out of it.
Posted by: Fenderbender at August 07, 2026 05:29 AM (1FEc1)

I have a new impossible desire

Posted by: SciVo at August 07, 2026 05:35 AM (Sy6m/)

44 BBC has changed their front-page Zuckerberg photo, and is now featuring

[Zuckerberg looks directly at the camera while wearing a blue suit and tie while descending the steps of the Superior Court in Los Angeles in February, surrounded by his legal team also wearing suits.]

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 05:37 AM (odBC9)

45 38 I just woke up from a nightmare. I accidentally toggled some button combination on my iPhone that converted the camera to “Taser” mode and I couldn’t get out of it.
Posted by: Fenderbender at August 07, 2026 05:29 AM (1FEc1)

Imagine a weapon you could point straight at someone and say "Hold still", and they would, while smiling at you.

Life's dream.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 07, 2026 05:37 AM (Ot/FD)

46 Although i have often said that if you duct taped a taser to a cell phone you'd basically have a tricorder.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 07, 2026 05:38 AM (Ot/FD)

47 Perhaps a sticky could be added to the top of the comment section explaining how to turn off JavaScript in edge and the proper means for disabling in other browser's. For android phone, I'm using "Free Adblocker Browser" from the appstore. I don't love it, but it's free and it works, so I load it before coming here. There may be other, better options but having simple instructions might help those even less confident than me.

Posted by: Button Pushing Monkey at August 07, 2026 05:38 AM (igCg8)

48 45 38 Imagine a weapon you could point straight at someone and say "Hold still", and they would, while smiling at you.

Life's dream.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 07, 2026 05:37 AM (Ot/FD)

relatedly:

'Put your phone down': K-pop band weighs in on concert etiquette
Cortis's plea has drawn mixed reactions in a fandom that's obsessed with capturing every moment.

--BBC

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 05:40 AM (odBC9)

49 China has invented a new self-repairing dress made of living fungus.
----
I've read this book. It doesn't end well for humanity.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2026 05:42 AM (FZ29D)

50 I woke up because of a bad cramp in my calf.

Posted by: Tom Servo at August 07, 2026 05:42 AM (pfrqN)

51 My actual problems with changed iPad defaults include getting out of the “live” photo setting that makes a short video, and getting back to jpeg (“format”

from a screen shot. My son-in-law has to help me with these issues. I still haven’t found out how to get the jpeg size down to email and print from an ancient desktop and (wired) printer.

Posted by: Fenderbender at August 07, 2026 05:46 AM (1FEc1)

52 I'm using "Free Adblocker Browser" from the appstore. I don't love it, but it's free and it works, so I load it before coming here. There may be other, better options but having simple instructions might help those even less confident than me.
Posted by: Button Pushing Monkey

Adblock Plus app is what I'm using. It's free.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2026 05:49 AM (lJ0H4)

53 China has invented a new self-repairing dress made of living fungus. (Dezeen)

No.

You're gonna love your shiitake underwear.

Posted by: The Sentient Shroom at August 07, 2026 05:55 AM (IfMHM)

54 Evening and morning, satellites and satraps of the vast AoSHQ Empire! 'Tis Friday, the consummation devoutly to be wished. I'm up with my coffee, trying to decide if I'm going to work out -- the eternal struggle against laziness, of course. The furry thugs are here; Stirling slept with me part of the night, but Dagny was out on the couch when I got up.

What's going on in your corner?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 07, 2026 05:58 AM (wzUl9)

55 Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant

But no fines on anyone for grooming or trans'ing children. The entire education cartel is one large active danger zone for children.

Narrator: It was never about the children; its always about the money.

Posted by: Community Notes at August 07, 2026 06:00 AM (9s47C)

56 China has invented a new self-repairing dress made of living fungus.

We should have no opinion until Piper weighs in.

Posted by: Community Notes at August 07, 2026 06:02 AM (xE0sV)

57 51 My actual problems with changed iPad defaults include getting out of the “live” photo setting that makes a short video, and getting back to jpeg (“format” from a screen shot. My son-in-law has to help me with these issues. I still haven’t found out how to get the jpeg size down to email and print from an ancient desktop and (wired) printer.
Posted by: Fenderbender at August 07, 2026 05:46 AM (1FEc1)

I may be misunderstanding the issue. Assuming you can connect the phone to the desktop and transfer the file, and are looking for a photo editing program that will run on an old computer, I use this for things like cropping and resizing, where even Photoshop Elements would be overkill:

https://www.irfanview.com/

Posted by: SciVo at August 07, 2026 06:03 AM (Sy6m/)

58 The real damage done to New Mexican children is done by the State of New Mexico itself with the prime example being the incredibly dysfunctional public school system here that has ranked worst in the country for decades. . . .

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions. at August 07, 2026

***
Hold our beers, Hurricanes, and drive-through daiquiris!

Posted by: Gnaw-luns Public Schools at August 07, 2026 06:03 AM (wzUl9)

59 So now I'm watching videos of perps getting tased.

Most hilarious subtitle so far:

{ Screaming in regret }

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 07, 2026 06:04 AM (O7YUW)

60
AI image (mis)labelling
August 2, 2026 @ 2:23 pm · Filed by Mark Liberman under Artificial languages

The singularity may have arrived, but AI systems still can't label diagrams

https://tinyurl.com/9y257nmv

(Language Log)

Posted by: m at August 07, 2026 06:04 AM (odBC9)

61 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at August 07, 2026 06:07 AM (Hbeqj)

62
Rise and shine, Hordians!

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at August 07, 2026 06:08 AM (O0L8i)

63 Finally sleepy! Good night.

Posted by: SciVo at August 07, 2026 06:08 AM (Sy6m/)

64 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: One can never have too many computers.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2026 06:08 AM (amcLV)

65 @50/Tom Servo: "I woke up because of a bad cramp in my calf."

This is my nightmare some nights, and I end up participating in the ONT around 2 to 3 am when that happens.

This is what my pharmacist recommended to help stop the leg cramps: Magnesium Oxide pills (the ones I buy are 420mg.) They're cheap, and they work.

One a day, except in the summer when I'm drinking a lot more water, then I take two, one at dinner time and one just before bed. Other times of the year, I just take the one at dinner time.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at August 07, 2026 06:09 AM (O7YUW)

66 Easier job today than so far that I have been on this job

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2026 06:13 AM (L8DX7)

67 We watched a lesser-known Bogart movie last night, Knock on Any Door. He plays an attorney who goes to bat for a juvenile delinquent accused of murder, played by John Derek. Actually Derek's character graduated from juvenile delinquent status a while ago; his record includes shoplifting, auto theft, and robbery/burglary. Well, this time his luck has really run out and he's charged with shooting a cop during a robbery.

The story of the trial is intercut with flashbacks of Derek's life growing up, his marriage to a good girl, his fruitless attempts to go straight, and her suicide when he goes back to crime. Affecting stuff, if loaded with the 1949 version of "Isn't society really to blame for this?" Bogart turns in his usual fine performance, and Derek is darned good too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 07, 2026 06:14 AM (wzUl9)

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