Hardware
Hardware:2026/08/03
⇒ reTerminal Sticky
Sticky is a 3.97-inch AI-powered magnetic ePaper display that keeps your family connected through visible notes, weather updates, and thoughtful messages. Simply speak to create content, manage it remotely with the Seeedash App, and place Sticky wherever it matters most—so everyone can see what matters at a glance, without the distractions of another screen.
IA
IA:2026/08/03
⇒ AI slop pollutes the CVE pipeline with fake vulns
With NIST still buried under its backlog, expect AI-generated bogus reports to continue
IA:2026/08/04
⇒ Linux Foundation Announces Tokenomics Foundation For “Economics & ROI Of AI Value”
Last month the Linux Foundation launched the x402 Foundation to standardize Internet-native payments for AI agents as their latest AI play. That followed other “AI” initiatives from dealing with AI exploits to AI asset and data exchange. Today they have another AI foray being announced with the creation of the Tokenomics Foundation.
⇒ Linux’s Staging Area To Now Reject LLM-Generated Patches, Except For Real Security Fixes
While Linux’s second-in-command Greg Kroah-Hartman does use AI / LLMs himself to success in the Linux kernel, given the “onslaught” of kernel patches produced by large language models and the intent on the Linux kernel’s staging area being an area for newcomers to get involved, moving forward he’s now rejecting AI/LLM-generated staging patches. But there is one exception and that is for genuinely valid security fixes.
IA:2026/08/05
⇒ When online commenters ‘detect’ my art as AI
Here is a collection of screenshots (obfuscated) of dozens and dozens of online comments from many platforms (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook) containing accusations or confusion that my artworks and comics are AI-generated. Despite creating every piece by hand, despite sharing timelapses, the comments keep coming, and they’re getting stronger.
⇒ While Torvalds Makes Peace With AI in Linux, Greg Kroah-Hartman Draws a Line (Sort of)
His new policy keeps AI patches out of drivers/staging, the tree meant for newcomers to learn kernel development.
⇒ This New Open Source Project Wants to Be the AI-First Alternative to Microsoft Office
Built by a single engineer using open source components, GenOffice bundles editors like Docs, Sheets, Slides, and PDF.
IA:2026/08/06
⇒ Linux Networking Continues Being Bombarded With AI Patches
While the Linux WiFi/wireless maintainer just announced taking a stand against AI/LLM generated slop patches with a new “three second review” rule, the broader Linux networking subsystem continues to be bombarded with AI-generated patches.
IA:2026/08/07
⇒ Nobody Touched This Linux Driver for Years, Until AI Started Poking Around and It Got Removed
Moxa confirmed the Intellio hardware was discontinued back in 2021, but the driver only left the kernel recently after AI agents started poking at the dead code.
IT
IT:2026/08/03
⇒ According to Statcounter, Linux on the desktop crossed over 7% globally
Take it with your usual pinch of salt, but Statcounter is showing some impressive growth for the Linux desktop overall globally. Continuing a trend of slow and steady progress, just like the Steam Survey.
⇒ Show memory information on OpenBSD
Finding memory information and usage on OpenBSD requires a few commands and the right places to look. If you are used to Linux, then commands like free are no longer available. Let’s have a look at memory details on OpenBSD.
IT:2026/08/04
⇒ Call for testing: OpenBSD vmm(4)/vmd(8) fd-ification
Thanks to the tireless work of among others Dave Voutila (dv@), development of the OpenBSD/amd64 virtualization system vmm(4)/vmd(8) continues to make progress. Now breaking changes, but with with potential benefits in both process isolation and compartmentalization of functionality, are on the way. It almost goes without saying that this code needs testing.
⇒ VIDAR at NYCBUG
presentation at NYCBUG is VIDAR, a FreeBSD-based automatic firewall program. Read the event description for details. Go, if you are near. The announcement doesn’t mention streaming so you may need to be in-person.
⇒ Messing with modern ZFS compression options
ZFS includes inline compression, meaning files are compressed and decompressed on the fly. While you might expect this to reduce IO performance, it’s been proven to improve throughput by reducing the amount of expensive reads required, especially on older spinning drives.
⇒ Every Network Is Hostile: Why I Carry OpenWrt Everywhere
APT29 is hijacking hotel Wi-Fi to steal Microsoft 365 tokens. A travel router running OpenWrt is zero trust at the edge, where it actually matters.
IT:2026/08/05
⇒ Dead Software Walking: The ongoing evolution of relayd(8) and httpd(8)
Returning readers of this site may have noticed that the pace of development in relayd(8) and httpd(8) has been picking up recently. Now Rafael Sadowski (rsadowski@) has a new blog post out titled Dead Software Walking: The ongoing evolution of relayd(8) and httpd(8) where he tells the story.
- https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20260805083816
- https://rsadowski.de/posts/2026/dead-software-walking-relayd-and-httpd/
⇒ IBM Plex Mono got an update
IBM Plex Mono is one of my favourite monospace fonts to have come out in the last decade.
⇒ How my homelab storage evolved over time
I appreciate that I spend a not insignificant amount of time talking about ZFS here, the only volume manager and file system I trust with my important data. ZFS came from my beloved Sun Microsystems, and today FreeBSD has the best ZFS integration outside the illumos ecosystem.
⇒ Running your own mail server with OpenBSD and OpenSMTPD
Self-hosting your own services such as a blog, website, or email is a valuable skill. It gives you a better understanding in the technology and usually also fun to do. With privacy under pressure and Big Tech continuing to store our data, this might be a good time to host your own mail server.
IT:2026/08/06
⇒ bozohttpd.rocks
Setup a simple web server with bozohttpd on NetBSD.
⇒ BSD Now—675: Going GPL Free
FreeBSD 16 goes GPL Free, The computer at the bottom of the lake, FreeBSD’s new Board member, Phaethon, a new 68010 based Unix machine and more…
IT:2026/08/07
⇒ Google Summer of Code 2026 Reports: Port the Enlightenment desktop environment to NetBSD
Enlightenment desktop is a low on resources desktop environment without sacrificing on visuals. NetBSD support for this BSD-licensed desktop has been left a few years behind. The aim of this project is to port the newest version of the desktop to pkgsrc and commit upstream portability fixes when necessary to ease future versions updates for NetBSD.
⇒ Proxmox Virtual Environment Officially Runs on ARM64, But Your Raspberry Pi Isn’t Supported Yet
The release is powered by Debian 13.5 and Linux 7.0, with NVIDIA Grace and Vera systems fully supported.
⇒ Migrating 30,000+ Personal Emails to Proton Mail: A Field Report
Migrating decades of personal archived email from Thunderbird mbox format into Proton Mail via the Bridge IMAP interface. On Linux. From the command line. Because GUI add-ons kept crashing.
⇒ DebConf26 closes in Santa Fe and DebConf27 announced
On Saturday 25 July 2026, the annual Debian Developers and Contributors Conference came to a close. Over 270 attendees representing 35 countries from around the world came together for a combined 90 events (including some which took place during the DebCamp) including more than 27 Talks, 21 Short Talks, 29 Birds of a Feather sessions (“BoF” – informal meeting between developers and users), 8 workshops, and activities in support of furthering our distribution and free software, learning from our mentors and peers, building our community, and having a bit of fun.
IT:2026/08/08
⇒ Fixing my Home Network Without Replacing the ISP Router
This weekend, I finally got around to putting that little FreeBSD box to work providing DNS for all machines on the LAN. While nearly all of my web traffic goes through a browser with built-in filters, my kid now occasionally uses an iPad and lots of apps are loaded with obnoxious ads. Having a network-layer filter never hurts, and it also opens up the possibility of static local addresses under .home.arpa.
Release
Release:2026/08/05
⇒ 2026.8: Approachable by design
One of the directions we care about most for Home Assistant is making it simpler to pick up and use, without compromising on capability. It’s something we have been working toward for a long time, and it runs through our roadmap and goals for this year. We cannot do it overnight though, so we keep listening to your feedback to make sure we are fixing the things that actually get in your way. If there is something you would like to see, we would love for you to weigh in. Every comment helps shape what comes next.
Release:2026/08/06
⇒ OpenBGPD 9.2 released
A sure sign that a new OpenBSD will soon be ready is that a new OpenBGPD release appears. On August 6th, 2026, the project released OpenBGPD version 9.2.
⇒ Announcing OpenBao v2.6!
We are thrilled to announce the availability of OpenBao v2.6, adding per-namespace sealing and the new workflow engine for cross-plugin communication!
Release:2026/08/11
⇒ Modular 26.5: Mojo 1.0 is here!
Today, the Mojo language officially reaches 1.0: a milestone the language has been building toward since its first release in 2023. Mojo has grown into a general-purpose language with a vibrant developer community writing their own libraries, tools, and applications on top of it. With Mojo 1.0, developers can now build for the long-term on a stable, production-ready language foundation.
Security
Security:2026/08/06
⇒ Zapscape Is The Latest Linux Vulnerability For KVM Guest-To-Host Escape, LPE
Made public earlier today is Zapscape as a guest-to-host escape vulnerability affecting the Linux KVM x86 code for the past six years. This 2020 kernel change to KVM x86 can also be used as a local privilege escalation (LPE) exploit too where /dev/kvm is world-writable on some Linux distributions like RHEL.
⇒ Linux Accidentally Left Legacy I/O & Memory Handlers Open In Kernel Lockdown Mode
For nearly the past decade has been the kernel lockdown mode for tightening up kernel access from user-space such as when UEFI Secure Boot is enabled. The kernel lockdown mode restricts PCI BAR access, no writing to /dev/mem, and other restrictions so user-space can’t can’t modify the running kernel or access sensitive kernel memory. An oversight has allowed legacy I/O and memory interfaces via sysfs to remain open in lockdown mode, but a fix is on the way.
Society
Society:2026/08/04
⇒ NVIDIA now supporting the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) as a premier sponsor
Nice to see the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) continues to grow, with it pulling in NVIDIA as a brand new sponsor.
- https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/nvidia-now-supporting-the-linux-vendor-firmware-service-lvfs-as-a-premier-sponsor/
- https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-Premier-Sponsor-LVFS
Society:2026/08/07
⇒ Illinois Just Told Every Operating System to Start Reporting Your Kid’s Age
The Children’s Online Social Media Safety Act has device makers collect the age bracket, but apps still have to act on it.