AMD has published Linux kernel patches for an official Ryzen overclocking driver that allows users to adjust CPU power and current limits through a firmware interface exposed via sysfs. Phoronix reports: AMD engineer Shyam Sundar S K posted the patches for the AMD Overclocking "AOD" WMI driver as an interface to the platform firmware for managing overclocking and power/current limits of modern Ryzen CPUs.

The driver in its initial form allows setting via sysfs a number of CPU tunables including the Package Power Tracking (PPT), Thermal Design Current (TDC), and Electrical Design Current (EDC) limits along with reading their supported range. SMT toggling can also be done via the interface as an alternative to the likes of Linux's "nosmt" option in disabling SMT at the platform level rather than kernel disabling. The current memory clocks can also be read via this AOD driver.

The power tunables aren't applied in real-time but go into effect at next reboot. The firmware does support many more commands compared to the few initially wired up and hopefully in time more of these controls will be enabled with this driver.

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A CBC investigation found that more than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips spanning 25 years were exposed in a breach of the P3 Global Intel tip-management platform. About 850,000 records contained personally identifiable information, including addresses, phone numbers, emails, license plates and some banking details. Longtime Slashdot reader doconnor shares the report: The data was stolen last March by hacktivist collective Internet Yiff Machine. In a manifesto, the group said it wanted to disprove the claim by P3 Global Intel -- the company hired by Crime Stoppers to manage its tips -- that the platform was "anonymous" and "secure." A copy of the hacked data was made available to researchers and journalists, including CBC, by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. non-profit that archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents it deems to be in the public interest. The report found that more than 4,300 Crime Stoppers tipsters identified themselves by their full name, with hundreds of records containing staff warnings that individuals had "self-identified" or been "exposed," yet their information remained unredacted.

The leaked data included sensitive allegations involving murder, terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, with nearly 49,000 tips linked to cases cleared through arrests or criminal charges. Cybersecurity experts criticized the retention of decades-old records... "If a tip is closed, does that need to stay online?" asked cybersecurity expert Ben Coon. "The answer to that, to me, is no."

The RCMP was initially told Canadian data was unaffected, then assured that exposed Canadian records contained no personally identifiable information. This appears to contradict the CBC's findings. Furthermore, affected individuals have not been systematically notified because contacting them could further jeopardize their anonymity.

"For a system that has been designed to promise anonymity to the users, that has failed categorically," said Prof. Ali Dehghantanha, the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence at the University of Guelph.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We haven't heard many details about Microsoft's upcoming "Project Helix" gaming hardware since the company announced it in March as a device that will "play your Xbox and PC games." In a new wide-ranging profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, though, Fortune alludes to a dual release strategy for upcoming Microsoft gaming hardware, with "a next-generation handheld device" planned by the end of next year and a 2028 holiday season console release that could cost between $1,200 and $1,800.

That future console price range is based on what has "internally been projected" at the company, according to Fortune. But the price for consumers could come down if "Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost," the outlet says, as many console makers have done in the past. While a $1,200 starting price would be historically high for the game console market, even accounting for inflation, it also reflects a new normal: The slowdown in Moore's Law and AI-driven component shortages mean cutting-edge gaming hardware just isn't as cheap as it used to be. This year, the Steam Machine broke the $1,000 starting price, while the 2-year-old technology in the PlayStation 5 Pro is now going for $900, and the 6-year-old Xbox Series X now starts at $750.

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A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found Facebook liable for deceiving users about privacy during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. State Attorney General Raul Torrez called it "one of the largest, if not the single largest state verdict against a company in American history." While Meta plans to appeal the ruling, the funds that are to be collected will go toward state education spending. The Associated Press reports: Jurors in September found Meta liable for over 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws when a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested Facebook user data to generate targeted political ads for the 2016 election. Forty-eight other states settled with Facebook in a nationwide case, but New Mexico chose to take the social media company to court on its own. [...] During the trial, jurors assessed whether Facebook misled users about privacy and content moderation 34 separate times. State prosecutors, though, argued Facebook's statements deceived the entire population of New Mexico and extended beyond social media users.

In the end, jurors agreed with this premise and found Facebook liable for 2.1 million violations on certain counts, bringing the total number of violations to over 43 million. Facebook's attorneys have argued in subsequent court filings that the state's consumer protection laws don't apply to people in New Mexico who weren't using the platform at the time. [...] In one of the few wins for the defense, jurors found the state didn't prove that Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content, including misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state said the company favored certain accounts and allowed for violent or inaccurate content to proliferate. Attorney Randi McGinn said in her closing argument for the state that Facebook profited off harmful content, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied during his video deposition. Zuckerberg said the company has to carefully balance freedom of speech with content moderation. Attorneys for Facebook said the company has adapted its policies since the state's lawsuit was filed in 2021 and that it removes 99% of content that violates standards.

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Ferrari have become the latest F1 team to unveil a special livery design for the United States Grand Prix weekend.

MPs in PNG to decide on ratifying a 2019 referendum in which Bougainvilleans voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence

For decades, the distant island of Bougainville has fought for secession from Papua New Guinea, for a future as an independent nation of its own.

This week, that long-running aspiration faces further challenge, with PNG’s parliament slated to debate the ratification of Bougainville’s 2019 UN-sanctioned referendum, in which nearly 98% of Bougainvilleans voted for independence.

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Former speaker is latest target of mailings sent to various Congress members in the lead-up to the midterm elections

California representative Nancy Pelosi’s office received “a suspicious letter” on Wednesday in what appears to be the latest incident of ill-intentioned mailings targeted at US Congress members before the midterm elections.

The offices of more than three dozen members of Congress across the political spectrum have received envelopes containing white powder in recent days. One lawmaker’s office said preliminary tests indicated the powder was not hazardous.

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As members of the public tour a fake ‘residential home’ for disabled people riddled with Nazi ideology, you desperately hope someone will speak up. Prepare for the most excruciating viewing of your life

I have never had to pause a programme halfway through before to catch my breath. That is until The Experiment – Channel 4’s highly controversial social exercise designed to find out “how susceptible the British public are” to Nazi ideology about disabled people. This is a show so disturbing, timely and surreal that within 90 seconds of viewing it alone, I am looking around for confirmation from an empty room that any of this is happening.

We start with a clip of Hitler. Against a backdrop of growing anti-benefits and ableist rhetoric, presenters Mat Fraser and Sophie Morgan fear the disabled community globally are once again being framed as a financial burden. Their question is: can the British public be persuaded that disabled people should live in “money saving” segregated institutions and be given low-skilled jobs to be productive?

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House prices in Sydney are at a two-year low after falling 4.7% in the September quarter to $1.66m, according to Domain report

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House prices are falling across every capital city for the first time in 15 years and the second time on record, according to figures from Domain’s September Quarter 2026 House Price report.

House prices in Sydney are at a two-year low after falling 4.7% in the September quarter, to $1.66m.

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The hilarious duo are back with deeply silly sketches about an evil trad-wife, Lime bike addicts and Dubai chocolate. There are only three episodes, but each one is gloriously unsettling – and packed with ridiculously good guest stars

In 2022, comics and actors Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou starred in six bite-size episodes of their self-titled sketch show. Among the highlights: a woman who makes wild swimming her whole personality before realising she hates freezing water; a pair of overbearing, overopinionated mums who vlog from a sterilely clean kitchen (“you’re not a real mum unless you’re redecorating or knocking through at least six times a year”) and, of course, Internet Nails, about two decidedly useless eastern European beauty entrepreneurs who were branching out into a variety of business ideas (“please let us scratch you with our ink today, and if you change your mind we can burn the tattoo off with professional match”). It was often hilarious, and was definitely weird, with many parallels to the offbeat Channel 4 series Stath Lets Flats (which White and Demetriou starred in alongside the latter’s brother, its creator Jamie).

Four long years later – reportedly due to scheduling clashes – the duo are back. Ellie & Natasia series two comprises just three episodes, although – gladly – these episodes are now half an hour long rather than a mere 15 minutes. Internet Nails, in particular, remains a crucible for unsettling comedy, with the salon having become a “premiere relax styling and elegance lounge for all makeup, hair straightening and spray tanning mother-baby needs”). The fact that both women were pregnant at the time of filming only makes it funnier, and the low-rent experience (“100% birthing penthouse with perfect lukewarm Jacuzzi”) is deeply silly and – for anyone who has gone to a slightly shonky beauty shop before – astutely observed. The judgy mums are back, too, complete with advice on how to make your wardrobe stretch from “conception to birth, birth to night, night to bed, bed to menopause, menopause to coffin, and coffin to hell …”

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide, August 1970

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

A developer can build their own uptime monitoring service using Python, instead of paying for a third-party service, by following a tutorial that walks through designing, building, and testing a production-grade micro-SaaS. The service features asynchronous health checks, background scheduling, database persistence, and enterprise-grade JWT authentication, all wrapped up in a clean FastAPI backend.

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Lego fansite announces possible Daft Punk set. Lego fan site The Brickfan is reporting that a new Lego collaboration with Daft Punk will be announced tomorrow (October 22, 2026). Here's the teaser trailer. This "Daft Punk Concert" set might be the one. From the Lego Ideas site: "4 years ago, this set won the Grand Prize in the global LEGO competition Music To Our Ears!, though it wasn't selected to become an official set."

MÜNCHEN (ANP) - Het aantal Europese octrooiaanvragen door een universiteit, publieke onderzoeksorganisatie of onderzoeksziekenhuis is in de afgelopen twintig jaar meer dan verdubbeld. Dat meldt het Europees Octrooibureau (EOB) donderdag. Nederland is volgens het EOB een van de landen waar het aantal octrooiaanvragen van publieke onderzoeksinstellingen het sterkst is gegroeid.

In heel Europa groeide het aantal aanvragen van ongeveer 3200 in 2006 tot bijna 8000 in 2025, aldus het EOB. Duitsland, Frankrijk en het Verenigd Koninkrijk blijven de belangrijkste landen, maar hun gezamenlijke aandeel is de afgelopen decennia wel gedaald. Dat wijst volgens het bureau niet op een achteruitgang van de koplopers, maar op "een bredere Europese onderzoeksbasis". Het EOB spreekt daarbij van "een bijzonder sterke groei" in Nederland en Spanje.

Onderzoeksinstituut TNO voert de ranglijst in Nederland aan met 142 Europese octrooiaanvragen in 2025, blijkt uit gegevens van het EOB. Daarmee staat TNO op de achtste plaats van de Europese onderzoeksinstellingen. Op de tweede plek in Nederland staat de Technische Universiteit Delft met 22 aanvragen en de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven en de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen volgen met beide achttien aanvragen. De Universiteit Twente heeft met veertien aanvragen ook een plek in de top vijf gehaald.

Zevende plek

De belangrijkste gebieden waarin deze instellingen patenten hebben aangevraagd, zijn meettechnologie, digitale communicatie, computertechnologie, biotechnologie, medische technologie en halfgeleiders. Organisaties kunnen een patent aanvragen om technische uitvindingen te beschermen en anderen te verbieden de uitvinding zomaar na te maken.

Verder meldt het EOB dat Nederlandse spin-offbedrijven vorig jaar veel octrooien hebben aangevraagd bij het bureau. Nederland staat wat dit betreft op de zevende plek in Europa met 245 spin-offs. Een spin-off is een bedrijf dat is voortgekomen uit een andere organisatie.

“A SpudCell can grow, copy its DNA, divide in two, and start its cell cycle all over again. But this cell is made by people, created from lifeless ingredients.” Um, what?