Tootfinder

#BloodInTheMachine is also an excellent book, btw. https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/across-the-us-people-are-dismantling

Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras
Anger over ICE connections and privacy violations is fueling the sabotage. PLUS: 10,000 drivers call on Uber to repay stolen wages, a man is arrested at a public hearing about a data center and more.

If a train is delayed 1440 minutes (precisely 24 hours), is it still a delay, or is it running according to the timetable?
(It's passenger information system error.)
#phisolophy

The worst part about this story is that I know who McRib Hard Seltzer is (from my time on twitter) https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/02/19/antonio-reynoso-brooklyn-borough-hall-placard-corruption-parking

SEE IT: Placard Corruption at Antonio Reynoso’s Brooklyn Borough Hall - Streetsblog New York City
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso quietly resumed the practice of issuing unofficial, illegal parking placards to his staff.

It took a year, but Quamina now has a full regular-expression capability, so I released 2.0.0. #Golang

Quamina v2.0.0

Man this is such a good thread over at Twitter:
https://x.com/moorehn/status/2014050043527876847?s=46

Heidi N. Moore (@moorehn) on X
I get it, but man -- we're mostly just exhausted. It's been 10 years of this. None of our institutions are helping us. Everyone's been in various forms of going broke since 2022 because of inflation and high interest rates. Trump's approval ratings are low and nobody wants him

🥳 Minor releases
• Auto Encrypt 5.1.0: Moves automatic IP address detection from top-level await to asynchronous createServer() method to enable servers that import to run offline when they’re running on localhost) and exports IPAddresses class so servers can carry out their own automatic IP address detection (IPv4 and IPv6) if they want full control over exactly which domains and IP addresses are included in provisioned TLS certificates.¹
• @small-tech/https: Re-exports IPAddres…

auto-encrypt/CHANGELOG.md at main
auto-encrypt - Automatically-provisioned TLS certificates for Node.js servers using Let’s Encrypt.

Google rejected 1.75M policy-violating Android apps and blocked 80K developer accounts from Google Play in 2025, down from 2.36M apps and 158K accounts in 2024 (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/19/google-says-its-ai…

Google says its AI systems helped deter Play Store malware in 2025 | TechCrunch
Google said it prevented 1.75 million bad apps from going live on Google Play during 2025, a figure that's down from previous years.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bo-french-deport-native-americans/

Texas GOP candidate Bo French called for deporting several Native Americans
His campaign said he didn't call to deport all Native Americans, but rather only the ones in the photograph he posted with his comment.

Okay, but these dumbass nazis (yes, I know that's redundant) appear to be gassing themselves? Wut?
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5o6k7jvowuyaquloafzn3cfw/post/3mcxnz3k6k22r

The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social)
WATCH: Bovino uses green chemical gas on Minnesotans because he got his tiny feelings hurt (H/T @mnicewatch)

More evidence that we are in an active civil war, started by the US federal government.
https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d?

Memo tells ICE officers they can enter homes without a warrant
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press reveals that the agency allows immigration officers to forcibly enter homes to make arrests without a judicial warrant. This change reverses previous guidance and raises concerns about constitutional protections against illegal searches. The memo, signed by ICE’s acting director, states that administrative warrants are sufficient for forced entry if there’s a final order of removal. This policy could face legal cha…

What a charming story.
Even Its Author Is Shocked by How Fans Have Embraced “Heated Rivalry,” the Gay Hockey Romance Series
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/books/heated-rivalry-rachel-reid-hockey-romance.html

Even Its Author Is Shocked by How Fans Have Embraced “Heated Rivalry,” the Gay Hockey Romance Series
Thanks to a steamy television adaptation, Rachel Reid’s romance novels about closeted hockey players have become mainstream best-sellers.

Prof. Jeffrey sachs: “Britain is a bully. A lot of the Europeans complaining are bullies. They've all been complicit in the Genocide in Gaza.”
“They stand mute when the U.S. and Israel bomb Iran... What has energized the Europeans is that it turned on them...”
https://x.com/partisan_12/status/20140

The Resonance (@Partisan_12) on X
Prof. Jeffrey sachs: “Britain is a bully. A lot of the Europeans complaining are bullies. They've all been complicit in the Genocide in Gaza.” “They stand mute when the U.S. and Israel bomb Iran... What has energized the Europeans is that it turned on them...”

Success! (from viaduct.world)
#rail

🥳 Multiple major releases today
• @small-tech/auto-encrypt v5.0.0 (https://codeberg.org/small-tech/auto-encrypt#readme)
• @small-tech/auto-encrypt-localhost v10.0.0 (

auto-encrypt
Automatically-provisioned TLS certificates for Node.js servers using Let’s Encrypt.

Microsoft's AI safety team proposed technical standards for detecting AI-generated content, but its CSO declined to commit to using them across its platforms (James O'Donnell/MIT Technology Review)
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/02/1

Microsoft has a new plan to prove what’s real and what’s AI online
A new proposal calls on social media and AI companies to adopt strict verification, but the company hasn’t committed to following its own recommendations.

Ex-progressive Senator John Fetterman is bucking his party yet again,
but this time the fallout could drastically impact the results of future elections.
The Pennsylvania turncoat came out in favor of voter ID legislation, revealing that he would support a clean bill if it required voters to show identification before they cast their ballot.
The issue is currently gaining momentum in the Senate under the banner of the "Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility", or S…

John Fetterman Hits New Low in Quest for Donald Trump’s Approval
The Pennsylvania Democrat backed voter ID legislation to combat a nonexistent voter fraud problem.

Whoever runs their account does more harm than good to their brand.

Testing, with the help of a funnel, the theory that cats are actually a liquid. Still having trouble getting his butt through the hole. #CatsOfMastodon

“What happened was, a faucet started dripping. And then I managed to route around the malignant machineries of late-stage capitalism. These days, that’s almost always a story worth telling.” https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/12/18/Humanist-Plumbing

Humanist Plumbing

Holy shit

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/12/21/documents-reveal-harvard-salient-complaint/

Racial Slurs and Nazi Symbols: Inside the Complaint That Shut Down The Harvard Salient | News | The Harvard Crimson
Screenshots and message logs obtained by The Crimson appear to show Salient leaders casually using racial slurs, defending extremist rhetoric, and dismissing internal concerns — conversations that later became central to the board’s decision to suspend the magazine.

Unpopular opinion: since software progresses much faster than literature or art, software copyrights should also expire much sooner.

“My friend, we are completely aligned on Syria. We can do great things in Iran. I don’t understand what you are doing in Greenland”
– Macron to Trump in private message
My friend, we should be fucking over Brown people together like we always do, I don’t understand why you are trying to fuck over white people.

Trump shares private message from Macron offering G7 meeting in Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday offered to host a G7 summit in Paris in a private text message to US President Donald Trump, adding that he could invite “the Russians” on the sidelines. The US president then posted the message, which was authenticated on Tuesday morning by the French president's entourage, on his Truth Social platform.

Sources: SoftBank plans to form a consortium to build a $33B power plant in Ohio, set to produce 9.2 GW for AI data centers, as part of the US-Japan trade deal (Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/economy/trade-war/trump-ta…

SoftBank to form consortium for $33bn 'Trump deal' power plant
Hitachi and Toshiba show interest in Japan's invest-in-US initiative

The English-language edition of Wikipedia
is blacklisting Archive.today
after the controversial archive site was used to direct a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against a blog.
In
course of discussing whether Archive.today should be deprecated because of the DDoS,
Wikipedia editors discovered that the archive site altered snapshots of webpages
to insert the name of the blogger who was targeted by the DDoS.
The alterations were apparently…

Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links
If DDoSing a blog wasn't bad enough, archive site also tampered with web snapshots.

I like when the #NYPost says the quiet part out loud. See, ending illegal labor practices and paying workers a living wage is "anti-capitalist." Being in favor of #capitalism means being happy crushing your workers and driving them into poverty.
If only they said that more…

So I'm reaching the end of Ultimate #Doom. What should I play next?
#games
Doom II
Doom 64
Heretic
Strife

General Catalyst plans to invest $5B in India over five years, an increase from the $500M to $1B previously announced, after merging with a local VC in 2024 (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/19/general-catalyst-commits-5b-to-ind…

General Catalyst commits $5B to India over five years | TechCrunch
The pledge marks a sharp jump from General Catalyst's earlier $500 million–$1 billion India earmark.

Newly released records show
a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in Texas
by a federal immigration agent last year
during a late-night traffic encounter
that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.
The death of #Ruben #Ray

Records reveal a federal immigration agent fatally shot a Texas man last year
A U.S. citizen was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer during a late-night traffic stop nearly a year ago in a Texas beach town crowded with young people celebrating spring break. The death of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez occurred in March on South Padre Island and was reported by local media outlets at the time. But authorities did not publicly disclose that the shooting involved a team from Homeland Security Investigations conducting an immigration enforcement operation in conj…

> Train 4 life
Checks.
> it's not about trains
#shitposting

Claude's C Compiler shows AI elevates the role of human judgment and vision; it's a milestone, but closely mirrors LLVM/GCC, and hard codes things to pass tests (Chris Lattner/Modular Blog)
https://www.modular.com/blog/the-claude-c-comp…

Modular: The Claude C Compiler: What It Reveals About the Future of Software
Compilers occupy a special place in computer science. They're a canonical course in computer science education. Building one is a rite of passage. It forces you to confront how software actually works, by examining languages, abstractions, hardware, and the boundary between human intent and machine execution.

The President’s power to wage war — in Iran or anywhere — is not boundless. Time for him to come to Congress.
Rep. Maggie Goodlander (VT)
https://bsky.app/profile/goodlander.house.gov/post/3mff5r4ap6k27

Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (@goodlander.house.gov)
SCOTUS finally said it yesterday: the President’s power to tax is not boundless, and the tariff💰he took from you was not his to take. Time for him to refund you. I’ll say it again: the President’s power to wage war — in Iran or anywhere — is not boundless. Time for him to come to Congress.

There's a little "zambie" running through the corridor.
My first thought: what kind of movies do people let their little children watch these days?!
My second thought: oh, wait, zombies are a normal thing in animated movies for children these days…
I feel old.

Sources: OpenAI has 200 people working on AI devices, including a smart speaker priced between $200 and $300, possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-openai-team-developing-ai-devices

Inside the OpenAI Team Developing its AI Devices
OpenAI has more than 200 people working on a family of AI-powered devices that will include a smart speaker and possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp, according to a person with knowledge of the plans. New details are starting to emerge about the group and its development strategy. The smart ...

A St. George Nevada woman just set a new female 100-mile world record in running,
completing the distance in 12:19.34.
This works out to be 7 minutes and 21 seconds per mile.
https://www.…

St. George woman breaks 100-mile world record
Ashley Pauslon, of St. George, broke the 100-mile world record for women in a time of 12:19.37, besting the old record by over 20 minutes.

#ACAB https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5o6k7jvowuyaquloafzn3cfw/post/3mfasazocvk2k

The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social)
“We’ve gotta give ‘em the mark of the beast. Team 6.” Nashville banner with VIDEO of @TNHighwayPatrol & ICE “Hunting” immigrants and writing in MARKER on their skin as they compete for who arrests more. (Few with criminal records) Full: https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/02/19/immigration-deportation-ice-thp-nashville-operation/

Is it the moment when we stop complaining that it's cold, and start complaining that it's raining all the time?
#Poland

OpenAI says users aged 18-24 account for ~50% and under-30s represent 80% of ChatGPT usage in India; Indians use ChatGPT mostly for work (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/openai-says-18-to-24-year-olds-…

OpenAI says 18 to 24-year-olds account for nearly 50% of ChatGPT usage in India | TechCrunch
The company said on Friday that users between 18 and 24 years of age account for nearly 50% of all messages sent by Indians to ChatGPT, and users under 30 accounted for 80% of usage in the country.

EPA Repeals Regulations for Mercury and Toxic Air Pollutants From Power Plants
Environmental and health groups said the change will make people sicker and supports a dying industry
https://www.thenewlede.org/2026/02/epa-rep…

EPA repeals Biden-era coal rules aimed at limiting brain-harming pollution
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed Biden-era regulations that forced power plants to cut harmful pollutants including brain-damaging mercury and particulate matter, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced on Friday.

0 days since #Whalebone fucked up completely and #DNS4EU started resolving #Gentoo .org to some random Japanese site.

Pepper, which provides a digital storefront for independent food distributors, raised a $50M Series C led by Lead Edge, bringing its total funding to $100M (Chris Metinko/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/pro/enterprise-software-deals/…

Exclusive: Pepper shakes out $50M Series C
Pepper, a business platform developer for independent food distributors, has more than 500 customers.

Trump ended the "de minimis exemption" for products from China last May and for items from the rest of the world in July.
Although it did not address de minimis directly, the Supreme Court’s decision appeared to invalidate one of the legal grounds for Trump’s decision to end the exemption, potentially opening the door for such inexpensive tax-free shipments to resume.
But in an executive order hours later, Trump said the flow of such goods remained a national emergency,…

Trump Doubles Down on Closing Tax Loophole on Cheap Imports
The exemption was shut down last year by President Trump based, in part, on the same legal grounds as the tariffs that were invalidated by the Supreme Court.

Very handy to be able to add a note (for my own memory) when I block someone!

I think the most neglected thing about helping others is that you should actually ask what kind of help they need. "Helping" without actually understanding their needs is inefficient at best, and outward harmful at worse.
While this is an important thought in general, it also applies to creating patches for #FreeSoftware.

Scott Myers, the head of Snap's AR glasses subsidiary Specs, leaves after six years; sources say Myers left after a "blow-up" with Evan Spiegel over strategy (Alex Heath/Sources)
https://sources.news/p/figmas-answer-to-the-ai-software

Figma's answer to the AI software sell-off
My chat with CEO Dylan Field ahead of today's earnings call. Also: Snap loses its head of Specs right before the big launch, and OpenAI poaches another key Meta exec.

A federal judge has accused the #Trump administration of
⚠️terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law
in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally.
Citing the deaths of Renee #Good and Alex #Pretti

Federal judge slams Trump administration's immigration crackdown in scathing decision
A federal judge has accused the Trump administration of terrorizing immigrants and recklessly violating the law in its efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally. Citing the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said in a scathing decision late Wednesday that the White House had also “extended its violence on its own citizens.” U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to prov…

wtf #nyc
#AQI

Did you know that I have a brain?
Yes.
No.
Pic or didn't happen.

Memo: Xbox President Sarah Bond, long thought to be Phil Spencer's heir, is leaving; Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is promoted to Chief Content Officer (Ryan McCaffrey/IGN)
https://www.ign.com/articles/phil-spencer…

Phil Spencer Retiring, Sarah Bond Out, Matt Booty Promoted as Microsoft AI Exec Asha Sharma Named New Xbox Boss – EXCLUSIVE - IGN
Big changes are being made at the top of Microsoft's gaming division.

The Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday,
handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda.
The 6-3 decision centers on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law -- including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country.

It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court,
which he helped shape with the appointment…

Supreme Court strikes down Trump's sweeping tariffs
The Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda. Friday's 6-3 decision centers on tariffs he unilaterally imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs levied on nearly every other country. The Republican president has called the case one of the most important in U.S. history and said a ruling against him would be an economic body blow to t…

For many things, I do prefer #CLI over #GUI interfaces. I mean, who would have time to learn where all these options are hidden all over the menus and dialogs?!

Phil Spencer will retire after 38 years at Microsoft; Asha Sharma, the president of product in Microsoft's Core AI business, will become the CEO of gaming (Jordan Novet/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/microsoft-gaming-chief-phi…

Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer retires, replaced by ex-Instacart exec Asha Sharma
Phil Spencer is retiring from Microsoft after joining the software company 38 years ago, and will be replaced by Instacart's former COO.

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a measure establishing
public funding for charter schools is unconstitutional,
affirming that state funds “are for common schools and for nothing else.”
The 2022 measure was enacted by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature over Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto.
It was struck down the next year by a lower court.
The state’s high court ruled the “Constitution as it stands is clear that it does not permit funnel…

Kentucky Supreme Court rules charter school funding unconstitutional
The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that a measure establishing public funding for charter schools is unconstitutional. The high court ruled that state funds “are for common schools and for nothing else.” The Republican-backed measure was struck down by a lower court in 2023. In an opinion released Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court wrote that the Constitution "does not permit funneling public education funds outside the common public school system.” In 2024, Kentucky voters rejected a…

Is it a good idea to put your head MRI as a profile photo? 🤔 Of course choosing the scariest looking image of all.
(This post is a really low joke, you don't have to worry about it.)

Code Metal, which uses AI to let engineers translate legacy code into modern languages, raised a $125M Series B led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1.25B valuation (Lauren Goode/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/vibe-coding-startup-code-metal-raises-seri…

Code Metal Raises $125 Million to Rewrite the Defense Industry’s Code With AI
The Boston startup uses AI to translate and verify legacy software for defense contractors, arguing modernization can’t come at the cost of new bugs.

"Girls Who Chase" trainings
offer foundational, operational and accessible information and training material
for storm chasers and weather enthusiasts at all levels
- from those who want to begin their chase education or brush up on the basics,
to more advanced chasers wanting to learn more in-depth about specialized topics. 

Girls Who Chase
We inspire, empower and equip girls & women globally to pursue storms, the sciences and their passions – through the use of media, the creation of accessible storm chasing/weather education products & services, and by fostering supportive, welcoming community. Girls Who Chase.

You wouldn't #HTTP status code a #train.

A US judge rejects Tesla's bid to overturn a $243M jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, a blow for Tesla as it faces a growing wave of lawsuits (Fred Lambert/Electrek)
https://electrek.co/2026/02/20/tesla-has-to…

Tesla has to pay historic $243 million judgement over Autopilot crash, judge says
A federal judge has rejected Tesla’s bid to overturn a $243 million jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash...

A Ukrainian arms company says it has modified one of its
ground robots to carry and launch
unjammable fiber-optic drones.
Ukrainian forces can put the drones in the air closer to the front without exposing pilots.
Ratel Robotics shared a video this week of its Ratel H model robot
equipped with a protected box.
In the clip, the launcher opens up and releases a small drone connected to a fiber-optic cable.
The uncrewed ground vehicle functions as a …

These new Ukrainian ground robots can launch unjammable fiber-optic drones close to the front so troops don't have to
The Ratel Robotics' robot launches fiber-optic drones close to the front lines in Ukraine so operators can stay farther back and safer.

Technically, it's a ford.

Peak XV, which split from Sequoia in 2023, raised $1.3B across new India- and Asia-focused funds, bringing its total assets under management to over $10B (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/peak-xv-rais…

Peak XV raises $1.3B, doubles down on AI as global VC rivalry in India heats up | TechCrunch
Peak XV says most of its new capital will target India as the firm prioritizes AI, fintech and cross-border bets while navigating recent partner departures.

Trump’s economic agenda has created a new level of volatility for the federal budget,
as the Supreme Court ruling against many of his tariffs appeared to create a trillion-dollar hole on Friday morning that Trump quickly said he could fill.
Mr. Trump has reshaped the country’s fiscal situation since he took office last year.
He passed an expensive income tax cut that economists warned could put the already-indebted nation on an even more perilous path.
But he also ins…

Tariff Whiplash Clouds Outlook for Federal Budget
The tariffs thrown out by the Supreme Court had become an important revenue source. President Trump said he could replace that money with other levies.

All these FPS tutorials prepared me for this.

The US launches the Tech Corps, a program under the Peace Corps to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI, as the US competes with China for AI dominance (Viola Zhou/Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2026/us-tech-corp-ai-volunteers/

U.S. plans Peace Corps-style “Tech Corps” to counter China’s AI exports
Washington to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI models as Chinese open-weight models are proving popular.

Trump is ripping you off
-- 10 billion dollars to his off- shore account in his
Board of "Peace"
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DU9bVGWCfoH/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Leigh McGowan on Instagram: "We’re being robbed."
170K likes, 6,794 comments - iampoliticsgirl on February 19, 2026: "We’re being robbed.".

0 days since random #Python project used `pytest.raises()` for warnings.
#pytest

Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma says she is committed to "the return of Xbox" and that the company won't "flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop" (Sean Hollister/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/games/882326/read-microsoft…

Read Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of Xbox
Asha Sharma, formerly head of development for Microsoft’s AI enterprise teams, will lead Microsoft Xbox and gaming. Here’s her first full memo.

I became a programmer because I found it much easier to program computers than to talk to people. Why would anyone in their sane mind claim that I'd be better off talking in human language to machines that pretend to be the kind of smug humans who have no clue about coding, but are going to fulfill all the assignments given by me by googling and copy-pasting whatever they can find?!
#NoAI #AI #LLM

India joins Pax Silica, a US-led initiative that aims to build secure supply chains for semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and critical technologies (Rajesh Roy/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/pax-silica-india-us-trump-modi-994d1ce…

India joins US-led Pax Silica initiative
India joined a U.S.-led initiative to strengthen technology cooperation among strategic allies in a move Friday that underscores the nations’ warming ties after a brief strain over New Delhi’s unabated purchase of discounted Russian oil. The decision aligns India closely with Washington’s efforts to build secure supply chains for semiconductors, advanced manufacturing and critical technologies at a time geopolitical competition with China is intensifying. It also signals a reset in relati…

Did I #dream of feeding a computer cat snacks? Perhaps.
But it had poor throughput, so they ended up stacking on top of the feeding hole.

Sources: OpenAI is telling investors it's targeting ~$600B in total compute spend by 2030, months after Sam Altman touted $1.4T in infrastructure commitments (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/openai-resets-spend-expectations-t…

OpenAI resets spending expectations, tells investors compute target is around $600 billion by 2030
OpenAI told investors it's targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030, trying to clarify its plans after touting a $1.4 trillion figure.

Microwave oven: a sophisticated device designed to be able to efficiently heat plates while keeping the food cold. Other functions include creating lightning and exploding eggs.

President Trump signs an EO to continue the suspension of the de minimis exemption, despite the SCOTUS' ruling that overturned most of Trump's 2025 tariffs (Zeyi Yang/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-imposes-new-tariffs-following-supreme-c…

Trump Imposes New Tariffs to Sidestep Supreme Court Ruling
The president signed an executive order implementing 10 percent global tariffs after calling the justices who struck down his signature trade policy a "disgrace."

"Claws" is becoming a term to describe OpenClaw-like agent systems that usually run on personal hardware and are a new layer on top of LLM agents (Andrej Karpathy/@karpathy)
https://x.com/karpathy/status/2024987174077432126

Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) on X
Bought a new Mac mini to properly tinker with claws over the weekend. The apple store person told me they are selling like hotcakes and everyone is confused :) I'm definitely a bit sus'd to run OpenClaw specifically - giving my private data/keys to 400K lines of vibe coded

Bengaluru-based Sarvam, which is building AI models for local languages, launches its Indus chat app in beta, powered by its Sarvam 105B model (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/indias-sarvam-launches-indus-ai-chat…

India's Sarvam launches Indus AI chat app as competition heats up | TechCrunch
Sarvam's Indus chat app is currently available in beta.

Pinterest users, especially artists, says the platform has gotten worse in the past year due to AI moderation, AI-generated art, and AI features (Matthew Gault/404 Media)
https://www.404media.co/pinterest-is-drowning-in-a-sea-of-ai-slop-and-auto-moderat…

Pinterest Is Drowning in a Sea of AI Slop and Auto-Moderation
Users are exhausted fighting AI moderation, AI-generated art, and AI-first features.

ElevenLabs launches an album of original tracks made by artists like Liza Minnelli and Art Garfunkel in "collaboration" with its Eleven Music AI model (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/music/news/elevenlabs…

ElevenLabs' Eleven Album Features AI Songs From Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel
ElevenLabs launched 'The Eleven Album,' a partnership with artists like Liza Minelli and Art Garfunkel to 'co-create' original music with its AI-based model.

Anthropic overhauled Claude's "Constitution" to enable the AI to generalize and apply broad principles rather than mechanically follow specific rules (Beatrice Nolan/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/01/21/anthropic-claude-ai-chatbot-n…

Anthropic rewrites Claude’s guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have ‘some kind of consciousness or moral status’
The AI company is publishing a new "constitution" that teaches its chatbot how to think, not just what to do.

Meta plans to expand ads on Threads to all users globally starting next week; Threads began testing ads in the US and Japan a year ago (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/threads-rolls-out-ads-to-all-users-worldwide/

Threads rolls out ads to all users worldwide | TechCrunch
Ads on Threads will roll out gradually to users over the coming months, Meta says.

Memo: Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Lab cofounder who rejoined OpenAI last week, will lead OpenAI's enterprise push, as part of a broader reorganization (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-names-former…

OpenAI Names Former TML Staffer Zoph to Oversee Enterprise Push
Barret Zoph, the Thinking Machines Lab cofounder who rejoined OpenAI in a swirl of controversy last week, will lead the company’s push to sell AI products to businesses, as part of a broader reorganization across the company, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications Fidji Simo told staff on Wednesday. Brad ...

Blue Origin unveils TeraWave, a satellite communications network for enterprise, data center, and government customers, and plans to begin deployment in Q4 2027 (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/21/bezos-blue-origin-satellite-internet-sp…

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launches satellite internet service to rival SpaceX, Amazon
Blue Origin is looking to send the first of TeraWave's 5,408 satellites into space in the fourth quarter of 2027.

Sources: Apple is developing an AirTag-sized AI wearable pin with cameras, a speaker, microphones, and wireless charging that could be released as early as 2027 (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-developing-ai-wearable-pin

Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin
Apple is developing an AI-powered wearable pin the size of an AirTag that is equipped with multiple cameras, a speaker, microphones and wireless charging, according to people with direct knowledge of the project. The device could be released as early as 2027, they said. Such a product would ...

X unveils Bluesky-like "Starterpacks" to help users find accounts that match their interests, curated by X and rolling out in the coming weeks (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/x-copies-blues…

X copies Bluesky with a 'Starterpacks' feature that helps you find who to follow | TechCrunch
X says the new feature, similar to Bluesky's Starter Packs, will arrive in the coming weeks.

Layoffs hit Vimeo for the second time since September 2025, when it laid off 10% of its workforce; Bending Spoons acquired Vimeo for around $1.38B in November (Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/vimeo-laying-off-staff-after-bi…

Vimeo is laying off staff globally after its $1.38 billion sale to Bending Spoons
Vimeo is letting go of workers globally in a new round of layoffs after selling its business to tech-holding company Bending Spoons.

xAI engineer Sulaiman Ghori says he has "left" the company days after appearing on a podcast last week claiming that xAI had been skirting regulations and more (AJ Dellinger/Gizmodo)
https://gizmodo.com/engineer-at-elon-m

Engineer at Elon Musk's xAI Departs After Spilling the Beans in Podcast Interview
Interesting timing.

Netflix adds a real-time voting feature for its Star Search reboot, available on mobile, smart TVs, and streaming devices, but not on a browser (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/20/netflix-is-rolling-out-a-live-voting-feature/

Netflix is rolling out a live voting feature | TechCrunch
Netflix said it the feature will be available globally and it will tally votes in real-time

The World Economic Forum in Davos is now dominated by tech giants, whose interests shunt aside topics like climate change, as Trump and AI take center stage (Peter S. Goodman/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/business/davos-trump.html

A.I., Big Tech and Trump Shine Most Brightly at the Davos Spectacle
The World Economic Forum is now dominated by global technology companies whose interests shunt aside most others.

Setapp Mobile, one of the first alt iOS app stores launched in 2024 after the EU's DMA, plans to shut down, blaming "still-evolving and complex business terms" (Tim Hardwick/MacRumors)
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/15/setapp-mobile-eu-app…

MacPaw Pulls Plug on Setapp Mobile iOS Store, Citing 'Still-Evolving and Complex Business Terms' for...
Ukraine-based developer MacPaw is set to close Setapp Mobile, its alternative app store for iOS devices in the European Union, next month. The...

The US DOJ says at least two DOGE employees accessed Social Security data that was off-limits under a court ruling and shared agency data on third-party servers (April Rubin/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/01/20/doge-employees-social-security-inform…

DOGE employees may have improperly accessed social security data, DOJ says
It's a stunning admission from the Trump administration, after it battled in court over DOGE's rights to access and use Social Security data .

X says it has open sourced its "core recommendation system" on GitHub and that the system "ranks everything using a Grok-based transformer model" (Lucas Ropek/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/20/x-op

X open sources its algorithm while facing a transparency fine and Grok controversies | TechCrunch
In a post to GitHub on Tuesday, the social media giant purported to share its secret sauce.

Greg Peters says Netflix plans to bring new content types like video podcasts to its vertical video feed, and plans to roll out a new mobile UI later in 2026 (Caitlin Huston/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Netflix Is Testing Vertical Video Features For Mobile
The streamer plans to add video podcasts into its mobile feed and upgrade its mobile user interface.

Demis Hassabis says there aren't "any plans" to put ads in Gemini and, in response to OpenAI testing ads, says "maybe they feel they need to make more revenue" (Alex Heath/Sources)
https://sources.news/p/googles-ai-boss-no-plans-for-ads

Google's AI boss: No plans for ads in Gemini
During our convo in Davos, Demis Hassabis and I chatted about ads in AI, Google's new deal with Apple, humanoids, and Gemini 4.

Snap reaches an agreement to settle a social media addiction lawsuit, a week before the start of a trial in the first of several social media addiction lawsuits (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026…

Snap Settles Lawsuit on Social Media Addiction, Avoiding a Landmark Trial
The settlement means Snap will avoid a trial where plaintiffs had planned to argue that social media platforms are inherently defective and subject to personal injury liability.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman clashed on X after Musk shared a post about a man who committed a murder-suicide following delusional conversations with ChatGPT (Theo Wayt/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/musk-altman-tussle-reports-…

Musk and Altman Tussle Over Reports of ChatGPT-Linked Deaths
Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded barbs on X this week over media reports of deaths linked to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI-related safety issues. On Monday, Musk shared a post about a man who committed a murder-suicide after a series of delusional conversations with ChatGPT, calling the story “diabolical” and saying that AI should “not pander to delusions.” On Tuesday, he followed up with

Netflix's ad revenue hit $1.5B in 2025, up by more than 2.5x vs. 2024, and viewing hours grew 2% YoY in H2, driven by a 9% rise in viewing of branded originals (Dade Hayes/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/01/netflix-earnings-q4-2025-stranger-things-12…

Netflix Edges Wall Street’s Q4 Estimates, Says Ad Revenue Topped $1.5B In 2025
Netflix's fourth-quarter results edged Wall Street analysts' estimates, and the company cited "great progress" in its nascent advertising business.

Sources: Applied Compute, which lets companies customize models with their own data, is in talks to raise funding at a $1.3B valuation, up from $500M in October (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/applied…

Applied Compute, Founded by Ex-OpenAI Researchers, in Talks for $1.3 Billion Valuation
Applied Compute, a startup founded by three former OpenAI researchers that helps companies customize models with their own data, is in talks to raise new funding at a $1.3 billion valuation, including the investment, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. The funding would ...

Multiple Apple services, including Apple TV, the App Store, and iCloud have been experiencing outages since 6:48 PM ET, according to Apple's system status page (Juli Clover/MacRumors)
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/20/app-store-apple-tv-down/

App Store and Apple TV Experiencing Outage
Apple's App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple TV service are experiencing an outage at the current time, according to Apple's System Status...

Bengaluru-based Amagi, an ad tools provider for broadcast and streaming TV, fell below its listing price in its India market debut after raising $196M in an IPO (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/20/amagi…

Amagi slides in India debut, as cloud TV software firm tests investor appetite | TechCrunch
Amagi shares debuted at a 12% discount, offering an early read on investor demand for a rare type of tech listing in India.

Payments using facial recognition are growing in South Korea as the tech improves; South Korean fintech app Toss has scaled its "Facepay" service to 1M users (Nami Matsuura/Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/business/techn

Facial recognition payments grow in South Korea as tech improves
AI and 3D photography help increase accuracy, spot fakes

Apple wins dismissal of parts of a class action alleging it violated CA privacy law by collecting user data from its apps despite users believing they opted out (Isaiah Poritz/Bloomberg Law)
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/tech-and

Apple Beats California Privacy Law Claims in Data Tracking Suit
Apple Inc. defeated claims that it violated California privacy law when it allegedly collected user data from its in-house apps, such as the App Store or Apple Music, despite users believing they opted out of collection.

China's Cyberspace Administration requires firms to file their AI tools in a public algorithm registry, creating a detailed map of the country's AI ecosystem (Yi-Ling Liu/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/china-ai-boom-algorithm-registry/

Thousands of Companies Are Driving China’s AI Boom. A Government Registry Tracks Them All
How the Cyberspace Administration of China inadvertently made a guide to the country’s homegrown AI revolution.