Daily Tech News 21 August 2026

Top Story

"Whistleblower" Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta. (NPR)
"At the end of the day, it was the company culture that Mark had created that made it so that it was practically impossible to deliver features that addressed the wellbeing and safety issues that we've been talking about," he said.
Well, that sounds serious. What wellbeing and safety issues are we talking about?

Grooming? Sex trafficking? Drugs?
But he said efforts to introduce or change features to effectively address those risks were difficult to implement. Instead, Béjar testified, at almost every turn the company chose policies that boosted usership and revenue over safety. Safety was "not a meaningful priority," he said.
Yes, but what safety? What are the actual concerns here?
He called features like video autoplay, "like" counters and infinite scroll "inherently unsafe for teenagers."
This is why Meta is facing a fine of $1.4 trillion.

Likes.

Tech News

SpaceTimeDB isn't. (Strn.Cat)

Neither space nor time.
Anti-AI fonts are useless and harmful. (Yaros)

Based on the examples linked, I am inclined to agree.
Castelion has reached a valuation of $13 billion based on contracts to mass produce hypersonic missiles. (Tech Crunch)

Wake me when they're hyperluminal.
Meta glasses aren't the problem. (The Verge) (archive site)

No matter how much The Verge wants to claim they are.

Assholes are the problem.
You can pick up Intel's new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus for just $140 from Micro Center right now. (Notebook Check)

Unless you live in Australia in which case it's a bit of a hike.

It's a good price for the CPU... Except that you need RAM and storage for it and it's a lame duck platform that will be dead by the end of the year. There's nothing to upgrade from and nothing to upgrade to.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Behind you!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 !!

Posted by: clarence at August 21, 2026 04:30 AM (pHgC8)

2 w00t

Posted by: m at August 21, 2026 04:30 AM (odBC9)

3 Disclaimer: Behind you!
****

Don't look back. Never look back!

Oh, And guten morgen, horde.

Posted by: clarence at August 21, 2026 04:34 AM (pHgC8)

4 Also, otters called.

Posted by: clarence at August 21, 2026 04:34 AM (pHgC8)

5 G'Day, everyone,
TGIF

Posted by: Skip at August 21, 2026 04:36 AM (Ia/+0)

6 The font on the Yaros site isn't exactly easy on the eyes either. Dude needs to get out of the '80s.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at August 21, 2026 04:37 AM (iIyc0)

7 Don't look back. Never look back!

The First Rule of Italian Driving

Posted by: il Miklosso at August 21, 2026 04:38 AM (4RYRd)

8 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at August 21, 2026 04:39 AM (WBro8)

9 Hitting the long road
Have a great day horde

Posted by: Skip at August 21, 2026 04:43 AM (Ia/+0)

10 Technology makes me sneeze

Posted by: TheCatAttackedMyFoot at August 21, 2026 04:44 AM (LOZbR)

11
Is tcn here? She had an awful spill and she's laid up with stitches.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 21, 2026 04:51 AM (XJ22o)

12 Oh, we found out why the Feds are looking into Swalwell. Normally a sexual crime would be a state matter, so 'Rons speculated about what made it a Federal case, and I didn't see anyone guess this: according to RedState, the search warrant was issued under 18 U.S.C. squiggly 242, using gov't authority to deprive another of civil rights.

A specific example that the article cited as potentially relevant is Waterbury CT mayor Philip Giordano, who was convicted under that statute for using his office and connections to coerce silence from two girls he had abused. Swalwell is certainly full enough of himself that I can picture him pulling a stunt like that, as if he would 'deserve' to get away with it. It's credible as heck.

I was reading it on a different device, let's see if I can get a link for you...

https://tinyurl.com/37vas7j2

Posted by: SciVo at August 21, 2026 04:53 AM (L3Npt)

13 Morning Horde. It’s funny how our preconceived notion that Zuck is autonomous evil impacts the reporting of the Meta trial. Have any witnesses ever been asked if they chose to control their kids access to an unregulated open sewer of social perversion?

I’m cheering against Facebook because they have built the creepiest most profitable sleaze machine ever, yet all it took was parents to exercise control over their kids viewing and engagement. Not easy but most worthwhile things aren’t.

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 21, 2026 04:55 AM (5jWPa)

14 11 Is tcn here? She had an awful spill and she's laid up with stitches.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 21, 2026 04:51 AM (XJ22o)

from the ONT:

304 Slipped on the bottom stair to the camper, fell backwards along the stair and whacked my head on the wheel hub. Bled like a SOB. Ended up in ambulance, to the hospital, got a CT scan to check for damage, got five staples, and one hell of a headache.

No concussion, so far as anybody can tell, but I can already feel my back aching between shoulder blades. I think that's mostly where I landed on the gravel driveway.

Posted by: tcn in AK at August 21, 2026 01:18 AM (gNl99)

Posted by: m at August 21, 2026 04:58 AM (odBC9)

15 Not easy but most worthwhile things aren’t.
Posted by: Pete Bog

Exactly

You have no idea how much effort I put into my MySpace page.

Posted by: Miklos found better hobbies at August 21, 2026 04:59 AM (4RYRd)

16 >>>Anti-AI fonts are useless and harmful. (Yaros)

When he says this:

If a human can see the information, that means there is a way the information can be parsed [by AI].

and this:

Besides, if an effective obfuscation method somehow gains widespread use, then a much higher priority will be placed on breaking it, eventually rendering it useless.

I mean, yes? But that is true of ... everything, maybe? The attitude seems defeatist. Maybe I am missing something.

Nice graphics at the three clickable font sites he points to.

Posted by: m at August 21, 2026 05:04 AM (odBC9)

17 You have no idea how much effort I put into my MySpace page.
Posted by: Miklos found better hobbies at August 21, 2026 04:59 AM (4RYRd)

So you're the guy that friended everybody? You must get invited to all the best events.

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 21, 2026 05:05 AM (5jWPa)

18 Good lord, WAVY10 is going on about Covid

Posted by: Accomack at August 21, 2026 05:05 AM (8jVAy)

19 blog.yaros.ae

UAE?

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

20 >>>Castelion has reached a valuation of $13 billion based on contracts to mass produce hypersonic missiles. (Tech Crunch)

Wake me when they're hyperluminal.

>Wake me up when we have hard targets and confirmation of dispensation.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at August 21, 2026 05:09 AM (tvdD1)

21
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 21, 2026 05:09 AM (AMvSw)

22 I don't know what META glasses are , but I don't think I want to wear them.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 21, 2026 05:11 AM (ZKPnq)

23 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at August 21, 2026 05:11 AM (V0/Sp)

24 Posted by: m at August 21, 2026 04:58 AM (odBC9)

Thanks for letting us know. I appreciate her presence here and will keep her in prayer.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 21, 2026 05:13 AM (ZKPnq)

25 The author at yaros.ae has some fun stuff elsewhere on the site, like:

lorie.gallery is an artwork portfolio website I developed from scratch for my grandmom, a professional artist with decades of experience.

This is a redesign of the website for my father's ophthalmology practice.

awww

Posted by: m at August 21, 2026 05:13 AM (odBC9)

26 AMV - Grenadine

Wild. Catchy!

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

27 Assholes are the problem.
****

Same as it ever was. You would need to exterminate a large percentage of the world's population to ease the problem. Then, there would be a new set of assholes as soon as you got the old ones out of their way. Round and round we go....

Posted by: clarence at August 21, 2026 05:25 AM (pHgC8)

28 Kind woman helps out an elderly neighbor and they become a family. Sunny Skyz site:

https://tinyurl.com/2tt9bj5c

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 21, 2026 05:27 AM (Ev8b9)

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