Amazing:

Researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, however, managed to create a new type of pixel that can simultaneously do both. This hypercharged pixel, called a Fourier pixel, can generate and sense arbitrary light fields and tap into a pixel’s full potential for carrying information by manipulating light’s intensity, oscillation phases, and polarization. The team reported its findings in a paper published yesterday in Nature.

We are one step closer to 1984 technology:

The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.

Paper.

The sixth-century church and UNESCO site lost its museum status in 2020 and was reconverted to a mosque.

Ukraine's top drone commander said Wednesday that Kyiv hit 20 Russian vessels in the Black Sea overnight.

This week brings two point releases for both Debian 13 - aka “Trixie” - and Debian 12 - “Bookworm,” the latter now shuffling off into long-term support. Debian 13.6 and Debian 12.15 are just the latest point releases of Trixie and Bookworm, but Debian 12.15 is also significant in another way: it marks the end of regular support for Debian 12, which is being handed over to the LTS team. That reduced level of support is scheduled to last until mid-2028. That means Debian 12.15 is the last point release of Debian 12. There won’t be a Debian 12.16. In turn, that means mainstream support for Debian on 32-bit x86 is over. (Debian 13 does still support some 32-bit Arm CPUs via the armhf port.) As we warned you in 2023, to run Debian 13 on x86, you require a 64-bit CPU. It supports 32-bit packages and libraries, so you can run 32-bit programs fine – but if you want to install Trixie on a 32-bit CPU, then you need to compile your own kernel. That’s not impossible: as we reported in late 2025, WindowMaker Live 13.2 does this, and so does antiX Linux, which we last looked at in March. The new releases both have two significant changes worth knowing about. The fwupd firmware-update tool from the Linux Vendor Firmware Service has been updated to version 2.0.20. As the Arch wiki describes, fwupd can only update the system firmware if your machine boots in UEFI mode (that is, not legacy BIOS boot.) However, that’s useful, as it can update UEFI machines’ secure-boot signing certificates and database too – and as Red Hat warned last month, Microsoft’s original 2011 secure-boot certificates just expired. If you don’t use secure boot, that doesn’t matter, but if you do and your boxes haven’t rebooted in a while, you might have problems. Don’t panic: problems aren’t likely, but if you do have some, disabling secure boot will work around it. Either way, it’s worth updating those certificates. The Debian Wiki has more info, and Linux Weekly News has a full rundown on the problem. Also, there’s a downgrade: the geoip-database package has been rolled back to an older version from 2019. This is because of changes in the MaxMind EULA on newer versions of GeoLite which conflict with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. The Debian release notes, somewhat unexpectedly, tell users to go and buy it: “Consumers of this data are strongly encouraged to obtain a GeoLite license directly and cease reliance on the ‘geoip-database’ package.” ®

Enterprise customers should use SAP's commitments to the European Commission to reconsider complex ERP migration timelines and gain leverage in negotiations with the German software giant, according to Gartner. Last week, the European Commission ended an investigation into possible anticompetitive practices after SAP agreed to abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back-maintenance fees, among other concessions. The case stems from September last year, when the executive branch of the EU launched a formal investigation into SAP's policies for maintenance and support services in Europe, responding to concerns that SAP restricted competition in this crucial aftermarket. In two papers published late last week, Gartner said the agreement represented an opportunity for users grappling with mammoth ERP migrations. Thousands of large businesses rely on SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to run core business operations. SAP's mainstream support for ECC ends in December 2027, while customers can opt for extended maintenance until December 2030 by paying an additional two percentage points on their maintenance fees. As well as trying to move customers off legacy software, SAP is pushing them toward the cloud and SaaS through its lift-shift-and-transform migration program RISE with SAP, launched in early 2021 in conjunction with cloud providers and third-party service vendors. Yet Gartner estimates that the majority of SAP's installed base is still using on-premises software. By 2030, more than 10,000 SAP customers will continue to support major parts of their business with solutions based on SAP ECC, Gartner said. "Premature SAP modernization leads to excessive technical debt and spiraling costs. The EU ruling fundamentally endorses third-party software support not just as a cost-cutting measure, but as a vital strategic resource to reduce the risks of ECC or S/4HANA migration. Heads of enterprise applications must urgently leverage this newfound flexibility to buy preparation time and avoid being locked into inflexible cloud commitments before they are ready," a recent Gartner research paper says. In its October response to the Commission's formal investigation, SAP promised to improve "the financial attractiveness for customers who wish to reinstate SAP maintenance and support services." SAP has now agreed to abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back-maintenance fees charged to customers who return to SAP support after a period of absence, the Commission confirmed. SAP also agreed to clarify conditions that allow customers to choose different maintenance and support service providers and different levels of support from SAP. "Previously, SAP customers faced an unavoidable dilemma: rush a highly complex migration to SAP S/4HANA or SAP private services before 2030, or stay on-premises with limited support and compliance guarantees via SAP's Customer-Specific Maintenance," the Gartner paper states. "Because this new ruling legally prevents SAP from restricting customers who want to 'mix and match' M&S services from different suppliers, it shatters the historical barriers to utilizing third-party support services (TPSS), providing essential extra options to best manage risk." Gartner recommends users review their SAP ERP modernization timetable in view of the new rules agreed by SAP and the EU, placing less weight on vendor deadlines. Technical debt, readiness for operating model change, and urgency of new ERP capabilities should instead govern the migration plan. In a second paper responding to the agreement, Gartner says customers can use the commitments to re-evaluate SAP support, optimize costs, and create new leverage in vendor negotiations. "Increased competition gives ECC and S/4HANA on-premises customers greater negotiation power on support contracts and cloud deals. Customers should explicitly reference the ruling when seeking alternatives to standard maintenance increases," the paper says. SAP user groups, however, told The Register they did not expect a wholesale shift to third-party support. Michael Bloch, licensing expert and board member of German-speaking user group DSAG, said: "It will be interesting to see whether customers will take that choice actively: most of them who are using ECC and may be looking for third-party support will not come back to SAP. As S/4HANA will still be supported until 2040, I personally do not believe that customers will cancel their support contracts and come back afterwards to SAP while having support until 2040." Conor Riordan, chair of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group, said SAP users had long called for greater flexibility, transparency and predictability. "Ultimately, this should give customers a clearer framework for responding to changing business conditions while evolving their SAP estates at a pace that suits them. We do not expect a wholesale shift away from SAP maintenance. For most organisations, especially those with complex or business-critical SAP landscapes, extended maintenance remains the lower-risk bridge while they continue their transition planning." ®

BORK!BORK!BORK! Paris might sometimes be called "The City of Light" or perhaps "The City of Love" by the romantically inclined. Judging by this hotel's elevators, "The City of Bork" is more appropriate. Spotted by eagle-eyed Register reader Nathaniel in a Paris hotel, what we assume to be digital signage is instead stalled on the all too familiar American Megatrends BIOS configuration screen. The computer behind the scenes also seems a bit overpowered to serve information for hotel services. Instead of enticing elevator riders into the undoubtedly delightful bars and restaurants of the establishment (apparently a Novotel not far from the Eiffel Tower) or whatever it should be doing, this screen has temptations of an altogether more technical nature. A CometLake CPU? An i5 no less? Sort of up-to-date. And that 8 GB of RAM? The way memory prices are going, that might be enough to buy you a nice hotel room in some cities, and at least a decent coffee and a croque monsieur in Paris. It all seems a bit excessive for something that an elevator user might glance at impatiently, while cursing silently at whoever jabbed the call button on the floor that wasn't theirs. The 10210U CPU, launched at the end of 2019, is one of Intel's 10th-generation Core i5 processors (and so acceptable to Windows 11, although we're not sure we'd want Microsoft's flagship operating system anywhere near a metal box held aloft by steel cables). Aimed at the mobile segment – in this case, mobile in the vertical sense of the word – it wasn't a bad bit of silicon. It supported DDR4-2666 memory, which appears to be what is fitted here, and there was Intel UHD graphics as an option. Less than ideal for the latest polygon-heavy first-person shooter, but more than adequate for entertaining elevator riders for a few minutes. Or a sideways BIOS setup screen in text mode. ®

peaceful-jp-scenery posted a photo:

Hasedera Temple
長谷寺

For me, the image that comes to mind when I think of Hasedera is this temple gate. This was my first time visiting.

とりあえず、長谷寺といったらこの山門のイメージです。今回初めて寄りました。

Kamakura city, Kanagawa pref, Japan

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Zorgpersoneel worstelt met bron- en contactonderzoek. In minstens 80 procent van de nieuwe besmettingsgevallen is niet duidelijk op welke mensen de besmetting is terug te voeren.

De afgelopen twee weken nam het jaarlijkse Amsterdamse dansfestival Julidans de temperatuur op van de internationale hedendaagse dans. NRC bezocht 17 van de 26 producties waarin het hele palet langskwam, van pril en onaf tot fantastisch en prikkelend.

In drie programma’s vroeg men zich af: hoe krijg je een ex-topsporter klaar voor een tv-carrière. Bij de meesten gaat dat vanzelf. Bij Estavana Polman moet iedereen zich er eerst mee bemoeien.

Social

Tijdens een Bulgaars avondje in een Bulgaars café, waar Bulgaars wordt gegeten, gedronken en gerookt, ontstaat ineens een Bulgaarse beukpartij als een stel Bulgaarse bullebakken bijzonder veel overlast veroorzaakt. Een andere Bulgaarse bezoeker beweegt de (vermoedelijk Bulgaarse) barman/uitbater op dat moment de politie te bellen. Maar dan keert het beestachtige Bulgaarse trio zich tegen deze bezorgde Bulgaarse burger. Die wordt al snel belaagd en krijgt een aantal fikse beuken. Is allemaal hierboven te zien op beelden van Omroep West, die zijn voorzien van Bulgaarse ondertiteling. Nou had deze bedroevende bende bij wijze van spreken in Bulgarije plaats kunnen vinden, alleen vond die plaats in de Haagse Schalk Bulgarijestraat Burgerstraat. Derhalve: ZoekZoek (tŭrsenetŭrsene)!

Gelukkig hebben we de foto's nog

De gewelddadige en compleet gestoorde gek Herman de K. sloeg in 2014 samen met zijn vader Hans de toen 54-jarige Cor Verolme dood. En waarom? Cor gedroeg zich 'irritant'. Zoon Herman ramde het hoofd van Cor in met een hamer. Vervolgens brak vader Hans, uit piëteit natuurlijk, de nek van het slachtoffer: "Ik heb daarna Verolmes nek gebroken. Het was één grote bende, zijn hersens lagen eruit." En daarna staken ze het lichaam in brand. U leest: Hans en Herman zijn nogal gek. Toch wil Herman nu dat zijn tbs wordt beëindigd. Om deze reden: "Voor jullie betekent een verlenging van twee jaar misschien niet veel, maar mijn hele leven gaat op deze manier naar de knoppen. (...) Zo kan ik hier nog wel tien jaar blijven zitten en gaat mijn hele leven naar de tering." Ja Herman, dan gaat JOUW leven naar de tering. Helemaal goed kerel!

​Het socialmediateam van Ryanair broedt al dagen op een sicke burn om de zwaargewonde passagier te dissen die tijdens een vlucht half uit het vliegtuigraam werd gezogen. De perfecte inhaker is echter nog niet gevonden. Directeur Michael O'Leary wordt ongeduldig.

Ryanair staat bekend om de spitsvondig-beledigende uitingen op sociale media, waarbij de terugkerende grap is dat klanten geen fatsoenlijke service mogen verwachten voor zulke lage tarieven. Het incident met de Serviër Ljubisa Karovic levert dus een ideale kans op, benadrukt O'Leary.

"Ik verwacht binnen 24 uur een viral reactie", aldus de geïrriteerde directeur van de Ierse prijsvechter. "Die man ligt al dagen in het ziekenhuis, we hadden hem allang kunnen roasten. Deze slappe hap is niet waar Ryanair voor staat."

De echtgenote van Karovic klaagde in diverse media dat Ryanair-personeel niet te hulp schoot en dat het bedrijf nog altijd geen contact heeft opgenomen. O'Leary: "Dat klopt, en dat kan wachten. Een scherpe Facebook-post heeft nu prioriteit. 'Had hij wel betaald voor een raam?' Zoiets, maar dan leuker. Moet ik dan alles zelf doen?"

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The Degree Shows of Department of Architecture and Division of Landscape Architecture, The University of Hong Kong, were held in Knowles Building, from May to June 2026. The key visual this year is encapsulates the diversities and vibrancies showcased in the students' works, the visual simulates the co-creation processes by not limiting the key visual to be fixed in one form but 75 versions with the commonly shared constraints, demonstrating their energies and ambitions fresh from University. The 75 versions aslo resonates the 75th Anniversary of the faculty, celebrating the community legacies and future prospects. Client ? Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong Typeface In Use ? ATF Alternate Gothic from American Type Founders Collection

The House voted 308-117 to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide and end the twice-yearly clock change. The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, "where one G.O.P. leader said it was unclear whether it could move ahead and at least one Republican appears inclined to try to block it," reports The New York Times. Some sleep experts oppose permanent daylight saving time, arguing that year-round standard time better aligns with circadian rhythms and winter morning safety. The New York Times reports: President Trump has championed the effort to save an extra hour of daylight before nightfall and make the time zone permanent, describing the ritual of moving clocks forward in the spring and back in the fall a "ridiculous, twice yearly production." "We are going with the far more popular alternative, Saving Daylight, which gives you a longer, brighter Day," Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post in May. "And who can be against that."

A sizable bloc of Florida Republicans in Congress is leading the charge on legislation that would do just that, mandating daylight saving time nationwide for the entire year. Representative Vern Buchanan of the Tampa Bay area is backing the bill, and Representative Anna Paulina Luna, another Tampa Bay-area Republican, cosponsored it. House leaders agreed to allow a vote on the measure this week as a sweetener for Ms. Luna in their efforts to persuade her to lift a legislative blockade she had maintained as she sought to force Senate action on a voting restriction bill Mr. Trump has championed.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Varvara is a fantasy computer slash art project from Hundred Rabbits, based on the Uxn 8-bit virtual machine. Programmed in a Forth-like assembly langauge called Unxtal, it was originally designed as the foundation for a port of the iOS adventure game Oquonie, similar to the virtual machine used to power Another World. Since that time, it has found a small but appreciative community, with ports to new systems, games, and creative applications written for it. You can learn to write Uxntal with a tutorial, or try a livecoding environment in your browser.

Uxn first hit my radar as a part of the "collapse computing" movement, which aims to create software that could be run on low-powered hardware in the case of a supply-chain unravelling (this could be charitably portrayed as an attempt at conceptualizing more sustainable computing, or uncharitably as weird prepper bullshit for nerds). But after writing an implementation of Varvara, I think it's actually much more interesting than that: a system that contains a lot of very intentional friction for tasks that are interesting (meaning that they activate the part of puzzle-solving part of the brain) but don't necessarily scale, with the end result of incentivizing little personal software programs.

They Met In A Convent, Now They're Married. This link is a short version of the story in English. This link is a much longer version of the story in Portuguese, but google translate works well on it. (Brasil)