2026-02-20 12:41:00
U.S. sanctions drive Russian crude to $40, triggering bankruptcies across the oil sector: https://benborges.xyz/2026/02/19/us-sanctions-drive-russian-crude.html
RSA is many days away, and Metacurity is already straining the capacity limit of our newsletter platform, so check out today's issue for the critical infosec developments you should know, including
--DarkSword turns iPhone hacking into a mass-scale, drive-by threat,
--CISA says orgs should secure Intune after Stryker attack,
--Stryker attack delayed some surgeries,
--Hacker claims theft of 93 GB of data from police tip platform,
--Fed cyber reviewers couldn…
New Gaza administration committee starts police recruitment drive (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/new-gaza-administration-committee-starts-police-recruitment-drive-2026-02-19/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260219/p56#a260219p56
#Vietnam is pushing hard on the #semiconductor front, the first fab in view. 32 nm only, and few details on how it shall be built. But it remains a theme reshuffling funds, also supported by growth in #datacenter
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
Kitchens of Distinction:
🎵 Drive That Fast
#KitchensofDistinction
https://kitchens-of-distinction.bandcamp.com/track/drive-that-fast
https://open.spotify.com/track/1zLP0BzKDOeQ26AtQ6UBjm
In March last year, I bought an 8TB hard drive for €156. The same hard drive costs €236 today.
This is crazy, guys.
#hardware
@… Are we counting rodeo drive? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodeo_Drive)
RE: https://toad.social/@tend2wobble/116258359066167675
But don’t worry, it’s not fascism, you just drive off to your job at Microsoft tomorrow morning like usual.
@… two fish are in a septic tank: one looks at the other and says: “how do you drive this thing?”
RE: https://hachyderm.io/@thomasfuchs/115929450635562848
Tried all three variants of it and nada, I think the cpu or storage is bad.
Diagnostics said no hardware problems.
I’ll try booting of USB but need to make a drive for that
IEA calls for working from home, driving slower and flying less to tackle energy crisis https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4540d0g4o
The Pentagon plans to cut its participation in elements of NATO’s force structure
and a range of the alliance’s advisory groups,
-- the latest sign of the Trump administration’s drive to scale back the U.S. military presence in Europe,
according to multiple officials familiar with the matter.
The impending move will affect about 200 military personnel
and diminish U.S. involvement in nearly 30 NATO organizations,
including its "Centers of Excellence&…
Needed to do some errands, wanted to do some sports and had a stiff neck ...
So .. drive to the nearby shop and cycle afterwards before it's fully dark?
Or .. why not have a ~30-40 min quick walk to the shop and back?
Errands done, had physical activity, I feel relaxed and I didn't have to drive ...
Xi Jinping’s anticorruption drive sweeps up senior Chinese military chiefs | Xi Jinping News | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/18/xi-jinpings-anticorruption-drive-sweeps-up-senior-chinese-military-chiefs?traffic_source=rss
I missed #mondog but this is Waffles, concerned at the delay at the drive through… he was really jonesing for his puppachino.
#dogsofmastodon @…
Today I peeled away the already wrecked metal casing of the Samsung BAR USB drive, noticed that the actual USB thing really is just the µSD-card sized blue insert inside the metal case, plugged it into a USB port, wondered why it didn't show up, took it out and burned the hell out of my fingers, because it was HOT 😂, destroyed the little sucker with pliers and tossed it. 🗑️
I wonder if it was broken before or if they actually used the metal casing for some electrical connection? 🤔
It sure would be nice if one of these 3 busses was to actually drive the route, instead of lollygaggin at the station together. 20 minutes late on a 15 minute headway route and counting. Now the schedule says a pile of em are going to arrive within 4 minutes of each other. Assuming they actually get underway.
#complaining #transit
Study reveals hidden 'chemical currency' fueling the ocean's carbon cycle #ocean
RE: https://esq.social/@SuffolkLITLab/115754124159087567
I have my doubts about this answer because of the reporting about how they were caught with videos spying on consumers. To his argument, cameras are older tech than lasers and Teslas will drive thro…
Even if you just wanna use it as an excuse not to drive the the shopping center, lol
https://boycott-usproducts.eu/
https://
Mercedes pauses the rollout of Drive Pilot, a Level 3 "eyes off" driving feature available in Europe and the US, citing low demand and high production costs (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/transportation/860935/mercedes-dr…
Matthew Stafford leads game-winning OT drive as Rams top Bears, advance to NFC title game https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6981907/2026/01/18/rams-bears-score-result-takeaways-nfl-divisional-round/
RE: https://vis.social/@infobeautiful/116262784472526985
Actually the brown car was me 5 years ago, now I just park in the back of the lot. No congestion, The extra steps are good for me.
Bye-bye Google Drive, OneDrive et iCloud : quel service européen pour stocker vos données en toute sécurité ?
https://www.01net.com/astuces/bye-bye-google-drive-onedrive-et-icloud-quel-service-europee…
In Trump's Drive for Greenland, NATO Is the First Casualty (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/world/in-trumps-drive-for-greenland-nato-is-roadkill-50af37ec
http://www.memeorandum.com/260118/p95#a260118p95
One for @…
I'm planning a visit in the near future
https://region.com.au/this-must-try-ba
@axbom@axbom.meThere is finally going to be a coffee shop within a walking distance of my house and it is "drive-through only". 😞
"Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/09/revealed-uks-multibillion-ai-drive-is-built-on-phantom-investments
This simple habit could help seniors live longer and stay independent #health
But I think that - first of all - Europe needs a strong cost reduction drive for components, systems, and processes in the energy transition, in a cooperation between R&D, manufacturers, and governments, and aligned with scaling up the market for 'made in Europe' solutions. We'll probably not get to the Chinese level, but we need to get a lot closer. This is essential both for competitiveness and affordability.
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
Drive-By Truckers:
🎵 Thoughts and Prayers
#DriveByTruckers
https://drivebytruckers.bandcamp.com/track/thoughts-and-prayers
https://open.spotify.com/track/0VHozA2RjGLW51210b3Lzq
RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/115929223140386641
I live in Atlanta. What we hear all the time from northern transplants is “We have snow up north too, but people know how to drive in it, and the road crews know how to keep the roads passable. It doesn…
Snowing in nj.
Stop honking at me people with 4 wheel drive. I'm going to go slower and you have to live with it.
#newjersey
This whole thread is such a joy to read, about migrating away from big tech and taking back control of a digital life. #TechSovereignty #TechEmpowerment
#DanmarkSkifter
When there’s bus bunching they should announce the lead bus is going express and skipping 10 stops ahead, instead of making the tail bus drive super slow, which rarely works and delays everyone on that bus with places to be. It sucks being on the bus that’s being “headway managed”
Yesterday I hooked up a brand new WD Black 8TB HDD to the 2nd PC, which is running Mint 22. No reaction, which isn't surprising for a blank drive. Opened up Disks, and there it was. Cool. Clicked the 3 vertical dot menu at the top of Disks, chose "Format Disk" and did the quick option which completed in a couple seconds.. and nothing happened.
"Hmm? Ok.." Formatted it again the same way.. still no reaction. Ok maybe I need to DC it and connect it again for it t…
Ukraine's battlefield lessons drive UK to spend over $545 million on hypersonic, long-range weapons in 2026: https://benborges.xyz/2026/02/13/ukraines-battlefield-lessons-drive-uk.html
Q&A with SiFive co-founder Krste Asanović, who was part of the original team that developed RISC-V, on creating a company that builds IP around RISC-V, and more (Dr. Ian Cutress/More Than Moore)
https://morethanmoore.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-dr-krste-asan…
South Sea Bubble, 21st Century Edition?
Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/09/revealed-uks-multibillion-ai…
South Sea Bubble, 21st Century Edition?
Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/09/revealed-uks-multibillion-ai…
Thanks a lot, AI:
AI companies have bought out Western Digital's storage capacity for 2026. It's only February
Hard drives are already sold out for the entire year, says Western Digital
https://mashable.com/article/ai-hard-drive-hdd-short…
Here's a #PixelFed update #git issue I didn't expect: installed on an rpi5, the git was cloned to the sdcard, but after installation I had to move /storage to a USB drive and so symlinked the path. I also had to modify database.php to use pgsql.
Now, when I attempt a pull, I'm told to stash my changes, but stash throws an error because composer.lock was changed and /storage/app/.gitignore is now a symlink.
error: 'storage/app/.gitignore' is beyond a symbolic link
fatal: Unable to process path storage/app/.gitignore
Whatever this stash test is, it doesn't obey root .gitignore, and I did a git rm --cached on that file which shouldn't be IN the repo anyway, and wasn't. Google and DDG refuse to understand that this isn't about adding filenames to .gitignore and git itself has no obvious override.
So I'm stuck 😞
It's weird to drive home from work and see the morning rush start.
Cybertruck Tried to Drive 'Straight Off an Overpass' Attorney Claims https://www.404media.co/cybertruck-tried-to-drive-straight-off-an-overpass-attorney-claims/
Time to put the newly rewritten server into action. Broke out my totally stock firmware LG WH16NS60 drive, and started in on some Bluray TV episode sets. Currently ripping at ~9.2X which definitely helps out.
Think I'm gonna target AV1 via `av1an` and use the `svt-av1-psyex` encoder. Already have the subtitles and attachments though I'll have to offset the subs by 1000ms for everything to work out.
In case you’re wondering, blowing snow / sleet rain highway drive between London and Hamilton ON at 5am SUCKED. https://bsky.app/profile/bmann.ca/post/3madnld664k2v
The fifth #AAS press conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dHXMm3pbWU about Asteroids, Low-Mass Stars, and a Mystery from History covered the papers Lightcurves, Rotation Periods, and Colors for Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s First Asteroid Discoveries (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae2a30 with https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rubin-record-breaking-asteroid-pre-survey and https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2601/ and https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2026-01-07-nsf-doe-vera-c-rubin-observatory-spots-record-breaking-asteroid-pre-survey), Dearth of Photosynthetically Active Radiation Suggests No Complex Life on Late M-Star Exoplanets (https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02548 with https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LlyzaK1wTk0hnqNGRCEMNe8BZEaMMFde), A Plasma Torus around a Young Low-mass Star (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ade39a with https://carnegiescience.edu/naturally-occurring-space-weather-station-elucidates-new-way-study-habitability-planets-orbiting-m) and Barnard's mysterious star near Venus - a strange interloper noted during a satellite search (https://scicomm.xyz/@cosmos4u/115849624944298844).
One-sided rant.
The permissions system on Linux is driving me totally bonkers. Why an inserted usb drive suddenly should belong to root is sth I am totally not interested in exploring. I couldn't care less, it just has to work, especially since I'm a wheelie. Fuck it, I'll have a beer. Or 3.
Don’t forget these 5: Drive-extending penalties https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/don-t-forget-these-5-drive-extending-penalties
Meta Ads: Under The Hood
Each week Megan breaks down the mechanics of meta ads, unpacks real campaigns, and shares how she uses ads to drive results - and how you can do the same...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/ecommerce-out-…
Mit #KI wird alles besser!
Thanks a lot, AI: Hard drives are already sold out for the entire year, says Western Digital https://mashable.com/article/ai-hard-drive-hdd-shorta…
🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
TSHA feat. Ingrid Witt:
🎵 Drive
#NowPlaying #TSHA #IngridWitt
https://tshamusic.bandcamp.com/track/drive-feat-ingrid-witt
Stafford shows 'MVP stuff' in Rams' clinching drive https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47576521/matthew-stafford-shows-mvp-stuff-rams-go-ahead-drive
Self-driving cars have been just 2–3 years away since 2003.
The car industry should be happy that the tech industry replaced it with a new grift (AI).
https://insideevs.com/news/784404/mercedes-level-3-drive-pilot-canceled/
People saying they are moving their data from clouds to a local hard drive.
I hope they understand cloud isn’t just space but also redundantly stored space and that moving to a drive locally is A fucking stupid idea.
I Ran a 5.25” Floppy Disk With NO Case in an IBM XT Drive. - YouTube
#floppy_Disk
> According to the complaint, [the former DOGE software engineer] allegedly told the whistleblower that he needed help transferring data from a thumb drive “to his personal computer [...]"
Copying data from a thumb drive being something a software engineer would need help with?
https://www.
The bully strikes again. New tax for American companies and citizens when they buy stuff from European countries that do not bow to Trump's Greenland demands.
If Europe blinks, we're lost.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/us/politic…
my annual year-end mix, 103 mp3s i've known & loved, 7 hours of music ready for shuffling & affronting darkness. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GyQzP_3fHhu18hdu9FSl3mhPqCZZz3ye/view?usp=drive_link
Sam Altman says Peter Steinberger, founder of OpenClaw, is joining OpenAI "to drive the next generation of personal agents"; OpenClaw will remain open source (Sam Altman/@sama)
https://x.com/sama/status/2023150230905159801
"It appears the council would like to see more multi-storey car parks on the edge of town constructed after opening the Ancoats Mobility Hub last summer."
So people still encouraged to drive through Manchester.
Watch out for this and then fight it; we need proper city-wide traffic reduction.
The latest plan to convince you not to drive into Manchester city centre - Manchester Evening News
Virtua Fighter 2: no not that one
Released late in the life of the Mega Drive, Virtua Fighter 2 is a very accomplished rework of Sega's 3D fighting game. It's been reimagined in 2D, using sprites, but it feels very similar to the fighting in the 3D game - or the Saturn version of it, at least. The controls map well, with a button for each of punch, kick, and block.
"it is not normal for a healthy 41-year-old man 💥to die within a day of being taken into government custody,”
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and founding president of AfghanEvac, a group that advocates for refugees said in an email to reporters on Monday.
On March 13, multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in unmarked vehicles surrounded Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal in front of his home in Texas as he prepared to drive his children to school.
The 41-ye…
Global energy crisis is underway thanks to Trump's war on Iran. Gov'ts ordering measures to save petrol & natural gas.
Thailand orders civil servants to work from home https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/th
DOGE employee stole Social Security data and put it on a thumb drive, report says | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/10/doge-employee-stole-social-security-data-and-put-it-on-a-thumb-drive-report-says/
Rams QB Matthew Stafford displayed 'MVP type of stuff' in game-winning drive over Panthers https://www.nfl.com/news/rams-qb-matthew-stafford-displayed-mvp-type-of-stuff-in-game-winning-drive-over-panthers
Trump's EPA decides climate change doesn't endanger public health—the evidence says otherwise #UnitedStates
Google rolls out Gemini-powered AI capabilities across Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive, including a "Help me create" tool in Docs to generate first drafts (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/10/google-r…
Don’t forget these 5: Drive-extending penalties https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/don-t-forget-these-5-drive-extending-penalties
When the truck pulls away from the building at CERN,
the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva,
all eyes will be on its precious cargo,
a one-tonne device containing some of the most exotic material on Earth.
The 20-minute test run around the campus, pencilled in for later this month,
will mark the world’s first attempt to transport #antimatter,
a substanc…
This is likely the least of what DOGE took.
The Social Security inspector general’s office is investigating allegations that the former DOGE engineer took sensitive data on a thumb drive in a major potential security breach.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/20
Finally managed to hook my #GoogleNest in #HomeAssistant.
If you are in the same situation, remember to remove *all* Google credentials first. Home Assistant doesn't allow org accounts, only regular ones. I had Google Drive with my main account, which is in my own org.
I dunno about you all, but I spent the long weekend reading.
Highly recommend both books for those looking for a different, less heard perspective on US colonialism, racism, and the for-profit prison and concentration camp systems.
They're fictional escapes from a nonfiction world that can feel too out of control, but they also fill you up with drive to change things and empower you for the fight ahead.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
UK's AI drive, touted since 2024 and featuring splashy NScale and CoreWeave deals, to build datacenters is riddled with phantom investments and shaky accounting (Aisha Down/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/202
Brock Purdy overcomes two INTs, leads 49ers' GW drive in postseason return to Philadelphia https://www.nfl.com/news/brock-purdy-overcomes-two-ints-leads-49ers-gw-drive-in-postseason-return-to-philadelphia
some pals & i went through all the circulating tapes of the grateful dead sessions at ace's in 1975, fixed dates & track names & tape speeds, & boiled it into a collection of wild music. big ups to @…, @…, …
Ukraine appoints digital chief as defense minister to drive military reform https://therecord.media/ukraine-digital-chief-transformation
Alpaca, which builds software to let companies offer stocks, ETFs, and other financial instruments, raised a $150M Series D led by Drive at a $1.15B valuation (Ben Weiss/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/01/14/alpaca-fundraise-series-d-brokerage-infrastruct…
Rams Outlast Bears in Overtime Playoff Thriller https://www.nytimes.com/video/sports/football/100000010653787/rams-outlast-bears-in-overtime-playoff-thriller.html
Just saw a motorcycle with a giant “Trump 2028” flag drive by
I wish them a very get your wheel caught in a cattle guard day
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #VarietyMix
Death Cab for Cutie:
🎵 The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
#DeathCabforCutie
https://kisseshugsfromfloralbugs.bandcamp.com/track/death-cab-for-cutie-the-ghosts-of-beverly-drive
https://open.spotify.com/track/6IKxfNSkRCWXBG4636BtRh
More pollution and higher energy costs: critics condemn Trump’s anti-environment agenda https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/10/trump-anti-environment-agenda-pushback
Under Trump, EPA’s enforcement of environmental laws collapses, re…
For a year, the Trump Justice Department has been on an odd mission:
to assist a former FBI informant with ties to Russian intelligence who ended up in prison for passing disinformation about Joe Biden to the bureau.
His crime deeply affected American politics.
The false claim he slipped to the FBI
—that Biden and his son Hunter each were paid a $5 million bribe by a Ukrainian energy company
—became the main evidence in the House Republicans’ reckless and ill-fate…
Nvidia announces BYD, Geely, Isuzu, and Nissan will use its Drive Hyperion AV platform and says Uber will launch Hyperion-powered robotaxis in 28 cities by 2028 (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/895301/nvidia-robotaxi-byd-geely-hyp…
Micron introduces the first mass-produced PCIe 6.0 SSDs, with read speeds up to 28GB/s, double that of PCIe 5.0 SSDs, optimized for AI/data center deployments (Aaron Klotz/Tom's Hardware)
https://www.
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SundaySoul
Pointer Sisters:
🎵 Don't It Drive You Crazy
#PointerSisters
https://casebloom42.bandcamp.com/track/dont-it-drive-you-crazy-cases-edit
https://open.spotify.com/track/7HT8rn9DzwGuyQ7oTTibx9
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SundaySoul
The Pointer Sisters:
🎵 Don’t It Drive You Crazy
#ThePointerSisters
https://casebloom42.bandcamp.com/track/dont-it-drive-you-crazy-cases-edit
https://open.spotify.com/track/7HT8rn9DzwGuyQ7oTTibx9
Sources: US Social Security's inspector general is investigating claims an ex-DOGE engineer took sensitive data on a thumb drive to his new private employer (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/10/social-security-data-brea…
Google warns that the EU risks undermining its own competitiveness drive with the "tech sovereignty package" the bloc is set to present in the spring (Barbara Moens/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/0847914c-be27-4573-8600-8cdb54e604b7
Banking, manufacturing, and other EU businesses warn "tech sovereignty" could hit profits and competitiveness as Brussels aims to cut reliance on US tech giants (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/95fe93ef-2439-4519-834e-eb1ac7dd0a04
Google has quietly released an unsupported Workspace CLI, making it easier for agentic AI tools to access Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and other apps (Ben Patterson/PCWorld)
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3079523