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OpenAI Launches a Keypad for AI Agents

OpenAI's first hardware device is a limited-edition desktop keypad called the Codex Micro that lets users monitor and control AI coding agents. Axios reports: Codex Micro is a collaboration with Work Louder, a boutique hardware company known for customizable mechanical keyboards and shortcut controllers for developers and designers. The small, square macro pad -- with backlit keys, a rotary knob and a tiny joystick -- sits beside your regular keyboard as a physical shortcut box for common Codex actions and shows the status of your agents. The keys are customizable and include a push-to-talk option as well as a dial to adjust your reasoning setting. Codex Micro is a niche device for Codex power users and will only be available until it sells out. It's priced at $230.

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Stripe, Advent Offer to Buy PayPal For More Than $53 Billion

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have reportedly made a joint $60.50-per-share offer to buy PayPal, valuing the payments company at more than $53 billion. The bid is said to represent a 28% premium to PayPal's latest closing price and is backed by roughly $50 billion in committed bank financing.

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Microsoft Patches a Record 570 Security Flaws

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs on Security: Microsoft today released software updates to plug at least 570 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, almost triple the number of vulnerabilities the software giant fixed in its record-smashing Patch Tuesday release last month. Microsoft attributed the burgeoning patch counts to vulnerability discoveries aided by artificial intelligence. Nearly 60 of the bugs quashed in July's Patch Tuesday earned a "critical" severity rating, meaning miscreants or malware could use them to seize remote control over a Windows device with little or no help from the user. Microsoft also addressed three zero-day flaws, including two that are already being exploited in the wild.

Two of the zero-day weaknesses allow an attacker to elevate their user rights on a Windows system, as do approximately 250 other elevation of privilege flaws fixed this month; they include CVE-2026-56155 - an Active Directory Federation Services bug -- and CVE-2026-56164, a Microsoft Sharepoint vulnerability. CVE-2026-50661 is a security feature bypass in Windows BitLocker that could allow attackers to gain access to encrypted data if they have physical access to the device. Microsoft said this bug has been detailed publicly, but that it is not aware of any active exploitation.

In a blog post on July 9, Microsoft Executive Vice President Pavan Davuluri wrote that Windows users will notice "a higher volume of security updates included in each security release" as a result of AI aiding in the discovery of vulnerabilities. "The pace of vulnerability discovery is changing with advances in AI making it possible to find more issues, faster, across more code, with new mechanisms that can accelerate both discovery and analysis," Davuluri wrote.

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Killer

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Killer

75th Birthday Golden Gate Bridge

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

75th Birthday Golden Gate Bridge

You Had No Faith to Lose and You Know It

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

You Had No Faith to Lose and You Know It

Mayfair Supper Club

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Mayfair Supper Club

40 Motel

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

40 Motel

Hase Temple, Kamakura, Japan 長谷寺、鎌倉

Mr Mikage (ミスター御影) posted a photo:

Hase Temple, Kamakura, Japan 長谷寺、鎌倉

Detroit, Texas

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Detroit, Texas

Found Photograph

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Photograph

Eindpunt

Fabio Bruna posted a photo:

Eindpunt

Klim Monte San Lorenzo, Friuli.

Startpunt

Fabio Bruna posted a photo:

Startpunt

Klim Monte San Lorenzo, Friuli.

Colossal

The best of art, craft, and visual culture since 2010.

See Peter Marlow’s ‘The English Cathedral’ at London’s Oldest Gothic Church

See Peter Marlow’s ‘The English Cathedral’ at London’s Oldest Gothic Church

Acclaimed British photographer Peter Marlow (1952-2016) was known for his journalistic attention to people and happenings in conflict zones and political interactions. Throughout his career, though, he also embarked on numerous personal documentary projects like Liverpool: Looking Out to Sea, which he completed in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the city experienced sharp economic decline—its historic docks were no longer viable for global industry. He was also president of Magnum Photos twice.

One of Marlow’s more meditative projects revolved around 42 Anglican cathedrals across England. The Anglican Christian tradition stems from the establishment of the Church of England following the English Reformation in the 16th century, although the cathedrals’ architectural lineage usually predates this period.

a photograph of the nave of a cathedral in natural light
Worcester Cathedral (2010)

Completing The English Cathedral involved coordinating visits at times of day when Marlow could experience the buildings in natural light, not unlike the way they were seen for centuries before the advent of electricity. He focused on the churches’ naves, illuminating their rosette-covered wooden ceilings, Gothic arches, altars, and hints of apses beyond.

An exhibition of The English Cathedral opens on July 21 and continues through August 31 at Southwark Cathedral, which has roots dating back at least to the 11th century. Today, it’s the oldest Gothic church in London.

a photograph of the nave of a cathedral in natural light
Peterborough Cathedral (2010)
a photograph of the nave of a cathedral in natural light
Southwark Cathedral (2010)
a photograph of the nave of a cathedral in natural light
Derby Cathedral (2010)
a photograph of the nave of a cathedral in natural light
Worcester Cathedral (2010)

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 See Peter Marlow’s ‘The English Cathedral’ at London’s Oldest Gothic Church appeared first on Colossal.

Ook al kolonialisme: huisdieren

Social

Wellicht leest u dit en heeft u nu ergens in uw huis een kwispelend, spinnend of knagend dier rondlopen. Ga dan even goed bij uzelf te rade: waarom vind ik het zo belangrijk om macht te hebben over een andere aardbewoner? Welke rol speelt uw diepgewortelde gevoel van witte superioriteit bij het brokjes voeren aan de kat? Ja, uw viervoeter is trouw. Maar trouw aan wat? Aan een systeem van onderdrukking en uitbuiting? Als u een hond aanlijnt voor een blokje om, doet u dan diep in de kern iets anders dan Jan Pieterszoon Coen deed op de Banda-eilanden? Als u uw tot huisdier gemaakte een 'af!', 'zit!' of 'hier!' toebijt, klinkt daar dan niet stilletjes een zin als 'en nou hierkomen gore bruine katoenplukker of ik gesel je de vernieling in!' in door? Allemaal belangrijke vragen om onszelf en elkaar te stellen na dit inspirerend betoog van 'marketingvrouw' Chanel Lodik. Laat de ze allemaal vandaag nog vrij. Daarna een excuses van premier Jetten, en dan natuurlijk; herstelbetalingen.

Oh toch geen kolonialisme, of zo


Een dijkdoorbraak door droogte, kan dat vaker gebeuren? ‘Als we water niet de ruimte geven, neemt het water zélf die ruimte’

In Wilnis vond in 2003 een dijkdoorbraak plaats, vanwege een uitgedroogde veendijk. De vraag is nu of Nederland met het aanhoudende hete voorjaar en de droge zomer iets dergelijks opnieuw kan overkomen. „Van deze dijkdoorbraak heeft iedereen in Nederland iets geleerd.”


‘Neem een grotere hap’, zegt de veilingmeester, waarna T. rex ‘Gus’ voor 44 miljoen euro wordt verkocht

Bij Sotheby’s in New York is door een anonieme bieder een recordbedrag neergeteld voor een skelet van een tyrannosaurus rex: 44 miljoen euro. Steeds vaker worden paleontologische vondsten opgekocht door private verzamelaars in plaats van musea – iets waar paleontologen niet blij mee zijn. „Ze concurreren de wetenschap kapot.”


Opnieuw schoot ICE twee migranten dood. Wie waren Lorenzo Salgado Araujo en Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero?

Het aantal arrestaties van ICE bereikte deze maand een recordhoogte van tweeduizend personen per dag, bleek begin deze maand. Vorige week en deze week werden migranten gedood na fatale beschietingen door ICE. Wie waren de twee mannen die nu door ICE zijn doodgeschoten?

The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Salesforce's Agentforce isn't winning over clients, KeyBanc analysts claim

Salesforce’s flagship AI agent platform is struggling to convince customers of its value, according to an investment bank. The SaaS giant has bet the farm on AI agents, hoping they will fetch and carry data from its systems into a conversational UI, according to its vision of headless CRM. The cornerstone of the strategy is Agentforce, which the vendor promises will help customers build, test, deploy, manage, and orchestrate AI agents in the enterprise. However, a report from KeyBanc Capital Markets cites its recent CIO survey, which found customers did not view the CRM plan favorably. "Our checks and customer conversations have not been strong, nor has the feedback been on Agentforce. What we can piece together in the disclosed numbers does not signal building momentum and, most recently, our CIO survey delivered another blow with Salesforce being a standout for the wrong reasons," the report says. The report, authored by Jackson Ader, the investment bank's managing director for software equity research, and three other analysts, says KeyBanc Capital Markets view of Salesforce was not down to the negative perception of software companies generally — the so-called SaaS-pocalypse. "We attend more Salesforce partner and customer events than any other company in our coverage, and feedback from those customers has been consistent in two ways: 1) customers' data is not in order to do meaningful AI work; and 2) Agentforce, as a product, just isn't there," it claims. "Partners we speak with are just now beginning to convert Agentforce proof of concepts into deals in the pipeline, and more CIOs in our survey expect to deprioritize Salesforce within their IT budget than the other way around over the coming 12 months." A Salesforce spokesperson told The Register: "Agentforce is the fastest-growing product in Salesforce history, with customers like Engine, Falabella, and AAA going live in weeks, not months. We’re focused on helping customers move faster, including through forward-deployed engineers and out-of-the-box agents." The KeyBanc report says Salesforce is presiding over "aggressive price increases" while the majority of customers are "not willing to pay for AI capabilities through their CRM provider." Salesforce, nonetheless, has retained a commanding position in the CRM market, the investment bank says. Speaking of pricing, back in January, Gartner warned Salesforce users that a capped enterprise agreement for its AI and data platforms may not be available when they come to renew these deals, potentially meaning customers could struggle to predict costs and understand value – although Salesforce strongly disputed this contention at the time. Bill Patterson, Salesforce EVP, Corporate Strategy, told us at the time, "The claim that we are moving away from capped agreements is inaccurate." Meanwhile, an earlier report from global equity research firm Bernstein said Agentforce was "still in early stage of adoption" and would not drive Salesforce’s growth in the short term. "Consumption-driven monetization at AgentForce will take longer than most expect. We also believe that AgentForce will be most successful in the company’s core CRM market and not that well-used outside the core as there are other AI platforms and many SaaS vendors and the hyperscalers are offering their own AI functionality," the report says. Wall Street bettors seem to share this bearishness toward the company in general, sending its stock down over 36% this year. ®

Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off

Chief penguinista Linus Torvalds has declared that Linux is not an "anti-AI" project, telling contributors who object they can either walk away or fork the kernel. On lore.kernel.org, the archive for Linux kernel mailing lists, reformed potty mouth Linus was responding to a discussion about some negative sentiments toward AI. It is one area where Torvalds said he was willing to “absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer … Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that they can do the open-source thing and fork it." “Or just walk away.” Ever the pragmatist, Torvalds described AI as a tool, “just like other tools we use. And it’s clearly a useful one. It may not have been that ‘clearly’ even just a year ago, but it’s no longer in question today. “Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn’t actually used it.” In October 2024, the Linux kingpin branded 90 percent of AI as marketing hype, saying he hated the hoopla generated by the tech industry. He said at the time: “I really don’t want to go there, so my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it.” He predicted things would change in five years, though he has softened his stance in 21 months. AI can be a “somewhat painful tool, both for maintainer workloads and just from an ‘it keeps finding embarrassing bugs’ standpoint,” Torvalds conceded this week. “But the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing ‘La La La, I can’t hear you’ at the top of your voice like some people seem to do.” The solution, he said, is to make sure LLM tools help maintainers rather than cause them pain. “We’re not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it.” The kernel project continues to be about technology, Torvalds added, and while the social angle of developing open source software is an important aspect, it is a “side benefit, not the point of the project.” “In the kernel community we do open source because it results in better technology, not because of religious reasons. And so we make decisions primarily based on technical merit. Not fear of new tools.” The seeming shift in stance was evident when The Register's SJVN spoke to senior Linux maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman in March: he told us AI-assisted bug reports and code review had improved dramatically. "Something happened a month ago, and the world switched. Now we have real reports… All open source projects have real reports that are made with AI, but they're good, and they're real." Torvalds in May said AI tools were only useful if they help “rather than cause unnecessary pain and pointless make-believe work.” Some maintainers in open source have complained of burnout - not helped by AI slop bug reports - and others worry about the quality of vibe-coding. Work still lies ahead before AI consistently proves it's more help than hindrance. “AI isn’t perfect,” said Torvalds in the mailing-list post on Tuesday. “But Christ, anybody who points to the problems at AI [sic] had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at themselves at the same time. Because it’s not like natural intelligence is always all that great either.” Quite right. ®