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Tech News
A new open-source project called Bookshelf offers a self-hosted ebook library that renders a single searchable page for EPUB and PDF files, with in-browser readers for each format. It can run as a Cloudflare Worker backed by R2 object storage or as a Node server reading from a local directory, and ships a Docker setup that bundles the cwebp and pdftoppm tools needed for proper cover generation.
Kern is a new open-source tool that runs rootless, kernel-enforced containers from a single 1.52 MB static binary, with no background daemon or socket required. It can pull and build OCI images, launch a sandboxed shell in about 3.5 milliseconds, and apply CPU, memory, disk and device limits either inside a sandbox or directly to processes on the host via named resource profiles set in a kern.toml file.
At Hot Chips 2026, IBM revealed a next-generation processor built on a 2nm node with 11 cores, each running at a 5.7 GHz base clock. The chip's key innovation is a core that can natively execute both z/Architecture and AArch64 instructions, switching between them within nanoseconds, a result of IBM's April partnership with Arm.
At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, the Tiangong Ultra robot ran a preliminary 100-meter heat in 9.39 seconds, beating Honor's Lightning robot (9.47s) and outpacing Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record. Both robots crashed into padding at the finish line, with some needing human assistance to be carried off, and the event is part of a multi-day competition featuring soccer, table tennis, boxing and other robotic sports through August 26.
Family members W.L. Lyons Brown III and Stuart Brown sent a seven-page letter to over 130 relatives criticizing Brown-Forman's board for rejecting Sazerac's unsolicited $15 billion takeover offer and for pursuing a failed merger with Pernod Ricard instead. Days after the letter circulated, CEO Lawson Whiting announced he would step down, amid a five-year period in which the company's stock has fallen 60%.
IBM unveiled a new mainframe processor at Hot Chips that will power future IBM Z and LinuxONE systems, marking the first chip whose cores can execute both IBM's proprietary instruction set and Arm's, switching between them in nanoseconds. Each of the chip's 11 cores is built to be dual-architecture rather than pairing separate Arm and Z cores side by side, letting Arm-native Linux and AI software run alongside traditional z/OS transaction workloads on the same silicon.
Researchers discovered that AliExpress's homepage runs hidden, inaudible audio-processing code tied to Alibaba's security systems, which measures how a device's hardware handles an audio signal to create a unique fingerprint without cookies. The behavior was uncovered by a developer whose Bluetooth headphones failed to switch between devices while an AliExpress tab stayed open, since the silent audio graph kept the system's audio path active even when muted. The same scripts reportedly also collected canvas, WebGL, and hardware configuration data as part of a broader tracking setup.