A community developer has reworked AMD's FSR 4 upscaler to run far more efficiently on the BC-250, a leftover PS5-derived crypto-mining board now being turned into a Linux gaming device. Testing showed 1440p processing time drop from 11.51ms to 5.92ms, with similar roughly 50% gains at 1080p and 4K, while producing output identical to the original shaders. The gains build on earlier Mesa driver work and now shift the optimization into a portable FidelityFX DLL.
At BlizzCon 2026, Blizzard confirmed development of Diablo V, an action-RPG set 100 years after Diablo IV where Diablo has already conquered Sanctuary. The story unfolds in Westmarch, casting players as the Heir to its royal line navigating a hellscape with no towns, heroes, or quest-givers, only a traveling caravan of survivors.
Researchers at UC San Francisco tested a surgically implanted 253-electrode array that reads brain activity to simultaneously produce on-screen text and animate a personalized avatar's movements. The system, tested with two participants with severe paralysis, is described as the first brain-computer interface to handle verbal and non-verbal communication together within seconds of intent.
Nature's latest books-in-brief column surveys four new nonfiction titles: Carlos Orsi's examination of astrology's scientific standing, Karen Torghele's biography of polio vaccine pioneer Albert Sabin, Trisha Muro's accessible guide to the physics behind space missions, and a work by J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev on monetary economics. Each book is briefly summarized with notes on its author's background and key arguments.
In May 2003, UW-Madison discovered its public NTP time server was being hit by a massive, sustained flood of hundreds of thousands of packets per second from hundreds of thousands of hosts worldwide. Investigation revealed this wasn't a DDoS attack but a design flaw in a popular vendor's cheap consumer routers, which mistakenly hardcoded UW-Madison's server as a time source and queried it far too aggressively.
An Entrepreneur contributor argues that traditional 9-to-5 scheduling ignores individual circadian rhythms, meaning some employees do their best thinking in the morning while others peak later in the day. Drawing on lessons from running Jotform, the writer suggests that instead of assuming poor performance stems from bad habits, leaders should identify when specific team members are naturally sharpest and plan meetings and demanding tasks accordingly.
A retrospective piece traces how early IBM and other PC-era keyboards, including the Selectric typewriter and IBM 1130 computer, used pictorial symbols for functions like space, backspace, and page navigation. Over time, as computing shifted toward American office use, most of these icons were phased out in favor of plain text labels, leaving only Shift, Enter, and Tab as widely recognized symbolic holdouts on modern PC keyboards.
Anthropic, founded by Dario Amodei to build AI cautiously and counterbalance riskier rivals, is now facing internal tension between its safety-first founding principles and the commercial pressure to compete aggressively in the AI market. The lab's original structure was meant to insulate it from the very competitive dynamics it now finds itself entangled in.
Apple's Control Center houses both Do Not Disturb and Focus modes, with Do Not Disturb actually functioning as one type of Focus alongside Personal, Work and Sleep options. Users can customize each Focus mode individually, choosing exactly which apps and contacts can send notifications while that mode is active. Setup happens through Settings > Focus, where filters, smart activation and time-sensitive notification exceptions can also be configured.
CNET published its daily hints and full solutions for the NYT Strands puzzle #924, dated September 13. The puzzle's theme, tied to secret agents and espionage, centers on the spangram UNDERCOVER along with related words like MOLE, AGENT, ASSET, PLANT, OPERATIVE and COUNTERSPY.
Cybersecurity guidance highlights that VPNs are most valuable in two situations: connecting to unsecured public Wi-Fi and preventing internet service providers from tracking browsing habits. Encrypting traffic through a VPN tunnel blocks eavesdroppers on shared networks and stops ISPs from logging and selling usage data to third parties, per FTC research cited in the coverage.
New AI coaching platforms, including The Predictive Index's chatbot Obi, let managers practice difficult conversations about pay, performance and layoffs before they happen. A July survey from The Predictive Index found 42% of managers know what they want to say but struggle with how to say it, and only 20% prefer preparing alone without a coaching framework. These tools range from text-based to voice-enabled, with some incorporating employee personality data to tailor practice sessions.
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