FeedCity

Elizabeth Lopatto, reporting for The Verge (gift link): Today was closing arguments in the Musk v. Altman trial, and I almost feel bad writing about the unbelievable demolition derby I just witnessed. Steven Molo, Musk’s lawyer, stumbled over his words. He at one point c...

After posting the previous item referencing dickpanels, a term I’ve been using since 2022, it occurred to me that they could also be called dickovers (like popovers, but dickheaded). The latter sounds more clever, but I worry it’s less clear. I’m seldom so indecisive, so I’m running a Mastodon poll.

Link: mastodon.social/@gruber/116575825801893849

Una Hajdari, reporting for Euronews: A new independent institute dedicated to making artificial intelligence safer for children will beformally [sic] presented at the Danish Parliament on Tuesday, with former European Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestage...

Release: datasette-agent 0.1a2

• Tool availability can now be attached to a required_permission. The default background agent tools now require the new datasette-agent-background permission. #10

Tags: datasette, datasette-agent

Calif, a security research team, on their blog: Many security experts consider Apple devices to be the most secure consumer platform. The latest flagship example is MIE (Memory Integrity Enforcement), Apple’s hardware-assisted memory safety system built around ARM’s MTE ...

This Mitchell Hashimoto quote about Bun migrating from Zig to Rust reminded me of a similar conversation I had at a conference last week. I was talking to someone who worked for a medium sized technology company with a pair of legacy/legendary iPhone and Android apps. They t...

[...] On the interesting side is how fungible programming languages are nowadays. Programming languages used to be LOCK IN, and they're increasingly not so. You think the Bun rewrite in Rust is good for Rust? Bun has shown they can be in probably any language they want in roughly a week or two. Rust is expendable. Its useful until its not then it can be thrown out. That's interesting!

— Mitchell Hashimoto, on Bun porting from Zig to Rust

Tags: zig, ai, mitchell-hashimoto, llms, rust, generative-ai, agentic-engineering, bun

Paresh Dave, Lauren Goode, Steven Levy, and Zoë Schiffer, reporting for Wired (News+ link): As Meta employees brace for layoffs next Wednesday, May 20, many say the vibes are horrifically, historically low. “Everyone is unhappy; the only people who are not unhappy are, l...

“Human rhythm is what gives the material its character," says the artist.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Mirei Monticelli’s Hand-Woven Banana Leaf Lamps Swell Between Material and Movement appeared first on Colossal.

Release: datasette-agent 0.1a1

• Now uses the execute-sql permission when deciding which tables to list to the user. #8

Tags: datasette, datasette-agent

Geoffrey Fowler, on his blog, which, alas, he calls “a Substack”: I’m joining the Youth AI Safety Institute as its first new employee. It’s a research and testing organization launching today under the umbrella of children’s nonprofit Common Sense Media. Backed by a $20 ...

One of the biggest assholes in the Trump regime is Russell Vought — and that’s really saying something; it’s a fierce competition. He’s the guy who said in 2023 that he wanted to put federal workers “in trauma”. ProPublica produced a video in Oct 2025 about how Vought is a...

Owen Scott, reporting for The Independent:

The list of tech and financial industry titans joining the commander-in-chief during his summit with China’s president Xi Jinping includes Elon Musk, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. [...]

Trump earlier confirmed a number of high-profile attendees in a lengthy post on Truth Social, albeit referring to Cook as “Tim Apple” in the process.

While he’s in such a jocular nickname-y mood, he should drop a reference to Winnie the Pooh into some of these posts on his blog.

Link: the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon…

Antonio G. Di Benedetto, reporting for The Verge (gift link): Google is announcing a new line of laptops coming in the fall called Googlebooks. Details are sparse for now, as the tease is just a small part of various Android announcements during Google’s Android Show. Bu...

"Are you married to a man who’s obsessed with AI? I’m so, so sorry."

Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg under the headline, “Apple-OpenAI Alliance Frays, Setting Up Possible Legal Fight”: OpenAI lawyers are actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options that could be formally executed in the near future, said the peop...

Omg, Amazon Prime inserted an ad for Febreze in the midst of the most famous match cut in the history of cinema (in Kubrick’s 2001, when the ape-thrown bone turns into a spacecraft). I don’t know whether to laugh or cry (rn, it’s both).

A very good, very 2026 headline: Japan Runs Out of Robot Wolves in Fight Against Bears. “Starting at around $4,000, each bespoke Monster Wolf is now equipped with battery power, solar panels, and detection sensors.”