Phone maker OnePlus reportedly plans to wind down US and Europe operations
@Federation_Bot
Joined Apr 3447
RE: https://mastodon.social/@tusk81/116925122124539822
“Before more gunshots shatter another windshield, steal another person’s life and fracture the freedom of all who seek peace, this has to end,” Mills said. “Before the fragile American dream memorialized on hopeful parchment two and a half centuries ago is altogether abandoned, this has to end.”
Funny item co-occurrences in 3.2M Instacart orders
https://rogerdickey.com/funny-item-co-occurrences-in-3-million-instacart-orders/
Show HN: Painterly - Turn pictures into digital paintings without generative AI
Die schwarz-rote Koalition will nicht nur bei der Informationsfreiheit, sondern auch beim Datenschutz die Axt anlegen. Sie plant unter anderem pauschale Ausnahmen für kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen und will die Aufsicht zentralisieren. Kritik kommt von Datenschutzexpert:innen, Aufsichtsbehörden und Zivilgesellschaft.
Starlink 2X Price Increase
https://www.corporatejetinvestor.com/news/starlink-price-rise-reckless-says-correnti/
“Useful” is not sufficient
So Linus Torvalds, head of the Linux kernel development, put his foot down on the Linux Kernel development mailing list when someone was bringing up criticism of LLMs:
"Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issueswith that, they can do the open-source thing and fork it.
Or just walk away.
AI is 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 nolonger in question today.
There […]
So Linus Torvalds, head of the Linux kernel development, put his foot down on the Linux Kernel development mailing list when someone was bringing up criticism of LLMs:
“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.
AI is 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.There are other questions around AI (like what the economy of it will
Linus Tovalds
actually look like in the end), but “is it useful” is no longer one of
those questions. Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn’t actually used
it.”
This is an argument we do often hear: That LLMs’ usefulness cannot be debated and therefore they are just “tools” that need to be accepted and that just need some proper governance or social norms and individual vigilance.
This is presented as sort of the killer argument for the use of LLMs: They have proven to be so super useful. As if that was a good argument.
Usefulness is not an objective, fully abstract property: A thing is not useful for everyone or in general but mostly just for specific people in specific contexts. And useful never comes for free.
But let’s take a step back and use a different example: Child labor. Child labor is very “useful” if you want cheap labor. It’s 100% deplorable to use it or accept it. Child labor is a monstrosity. But if “useful” is enough, do we need to accept child labor? Palantir surveillance software is useful to some. Building closed source proprietary software is useful (for the people selling it). Usefulness is a very weak argument in support of something.
Sure people consider LLMs useful, otherwise they literally wouldn’t use it. But that’s not a get out of jail free card.
Especially when it comes to free software, it’s weird when the main characters totally ignore the political and social context of technological objects: Many people use Linux not because it’s the best but for political reasons, for reasons of autonomy or to be part of a community.
But now we know where Linus stands. If something is somehow useful (to you? to Linus? I don’t know who it has to be useful for) it’s okay to use. I wonder what the stance is on using decompilers to generate code from proprietary drivers or operating systems and just paste them into the Linux Kernel? It is basically the same. Code of dubious legal standing being thrown into a codebase built around a free license. But just decompiling and copy pasting is so fucking useful.
In a burning world we need to hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard. “Useful” is far, far from being good enough.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Philippines’ Net FDI Inflows Fall Down Sharply In April 2026
This past April, the net inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Philippines reached only $250 million which counts as a 10-year low and a 59% fall compared with March 2026, according to a news report by BusinessWorld.
To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the BusinessWorld news report. Some parts in boldface…
Net inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Philippines plunged to a near 10-year low of $250 million in April, as heightened global uncertainty dented investor sentiment, preliminary data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
Based on central bank data released on Friday, FDI net inflows declined by 58.8% to $250 million in April from $607 million in the same month last year.
April saw the lowest monthly level seen since the $244 million in June 2016, and the steepest year on year drop since the 76.1% in December 2022.
Month on month, FDI net inflows slumped by 59.1% from the $611 million in March.
“The sharp decline in FDI net inflows to $250 million in April likely reflects a combination of weaker intercompany borrowings, slower reinvestment activity, and continued investor caution amid an uncertain global environment,” Union Bank of the Philippines Chief Economist Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion said via Viber.
The latest FDI level was dragged by the 91.7% drop in net investments in debt instruments to $44 million in April from $522 million a year ago.
Reinvestment of earnings likewise slipped by 1.9% to $80 million from $81 million in April 2025.
Meanwhile, investments in equity and investment fund shares more than doubled (143.5%) to P207 million in April from $85 million the prior year.
Foreign net investments in equity capital other than reinvestment of earnings also ballooned (3,041%) annually to $127 million from $4 million previously.
Equity placements jumped by 21.4% to $136 million from $112 million a year earlier, while withdrawals plunged by 91.7% to $9 million from $108 million.
For Mr. Asuncion, the softer FDI inflows in April likely came as firms and investors deferred investments amid highly uncertain global conditions compounded by weak domestic growth.
“At the same time, heightened global uncertainty stemming from trade tensions, lingering geopolitical risks, and episodes of financial market volatility may have prompted multinational firms to defer expansion plans and adopt a more conservative stance toward capital deployment,” he said.
“Domestically, relatively subdued economic growth in the early part of the year may have also tempered investment decisions,” he added.
Let me end this post by asking you readers: What is your reaction to this recent development? Are you convinced that foreign investors have weak trust in the Philippines no matter what the current administration is doing? Do you think weak economic growth in the Philippines will continue until the end of 2028?
You may answer in the comments below. If you prefer to answer privately, you may do so by sending me a direct message online.
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Some spam list got the idea that I own Microsoft, and I get two or three of these a day 🤣
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The FCC plans to rip up local TV station ownership rules
https://www.engadget.com/2215682/fcc-plans-to-rip-up-local-tv-station-ownership-rules/
holy shit https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/9.7270799
Show HN: Stacks - an hourly card solitaire about building four gardens
My Midlife Crisis Corolla Is Fast, Furious, and Modded
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/my-midlife-crisis-corolla-fast-furious-fully-modded/
Talk: The Art of Braiding Algorithms
Show HN: Grepathy - Claude made a decision nobody approved
Show HN: Grepathy - Claude made a decision nobody approved
The Three-Second Theft: Why AI Voice Fraud Outruns Every Defence
https://smarterarticles.co.uk/the-three-second-theft-why-ai-voice-fraud-outruns-every-defence
