GoKawiil
Tech News
After losing hundreds of thousands of students during the pandemic, community colleges are now seeing sustained enrollment growth, with 5.8 million students enrolled in spring 2026, a 5.2% increase from spring 2021, according to National Student Clearinghouse Research Center data. Researchers say students who left during the pandemic did not simply transfer to four-year universities, which also saw declines among 18- to 24-year-olds.
A tech commentator argues that corporate AI adoption remains stuck because the technology still exposes its rough edges to users, unlike the iPhone, which succeeded by unifying existing technologies into one polished experience. The piece draws a parallel between Steve Jobs' 2007 iPhone unveiling and the current state of enterprise AI, suggesting the sector awaits a similar moment of integration and simplicity.
Following an August incident where a burst water line at an Athlon BT-operated Bitcoin-mining facility in El Reno, Oklahoma spilled nearly four million gallons of water, a subsequent fire marshal inspection uncovered a string of serious safety violations. Investigators found flammable liquids stored near combustible materials, poorly maintained fire extinguishers, damaged electrical wiring, an empty emergency lockbox, and code-violating vegetation, prompting the city to issue the facility a failing safety grade.
Apple's upcoming iPhone Duo, arriving in October, includes a fourth camera hidden beneath the inner display alongside its front-facing and dual rear cameras. Unlike those, the under-screen camera lacks a listed megapixel count and skips features like 4K video, cinematic mode, slow-mo, LED flash and portrait mode, offering only 1080p recording, FaceTime support, Center Stage and an f/1.8 aperture.
Cisco has verified that attackers are actively exploiting CVE-2026-20079, a maximum-severity (CVSS 10.0) flaw in its Secure Firewall Management Center software that lets unauthenticated remote attackers bypass login and run commands as root. The company first disclosed the bug in March without evidence of exploitation, but updated its advisory this week to acknowledge PSIRT detected active attacks in August, though it hasn't shared attacker identity or attack timeline details. CISA has since added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, giving federal agencies until September 12 to patch.
Analog Devices has agreed to acquire Alif Semiconductor in an all-cash deal valued at $1.35 billion. The acquisition is aimed at broadening ADI's reach into fast-growing markets, including data-center infrastructure and defense applications.
Verdant, an economic think tank pushing for stricter data center regulation, says techUK's widely cited job creation figures are inflated. It estimates existing UK data centers support about 4,400 direct jobs versus techUK's 24,300, and projects only 10,400 permanent jobs by 2035 for planned sites versus techUK's forecast of 40,200.
Brian Nosek, executive director of the Center for Open Science, announced that as of 16 November the Open Science Framework will no longer accept new uploads of code, data or supplementary materials, though existing public files will remain online. Private files must be deleted or made public by users, or they will automatically become public after the deadline. Preregistration services and the platform's 14 preprint servers will continue operating unaffected.
Storage prices are climbing fast as AI data centers consume the supply of NAND flash and hard drive components once reserved for consumer products. A 2TB SSD that cost $120-$200 last year can now run close to $400, while even small 256GB drives have jumped several times over their previous $25 price point. Portable drives used for everyday backups have also nearly doubled in cost within months.
Thailand's government has asked operators of 49 data centers under construction to voluntarily halt work while officials draft comprehensive legislation covering the industry, according to NESDC secretary-general Danucha Pichayanan. The country currently lacks specific laws for data centers, resulting in loopholes such as facilities being zoned as warehouses next to hospitals, and officials plan to spend about a month drafting rules after gathering data from agencies through September 11.
A June fire at the unfinished Lake Mariner data center in Somerset, New York, left local firefighters battling smoke from unidentified chemicals with no working alarms, no suppression system, and three dry hydrants. TeraWulf, which owns and operates the site under a complex arrangement involving Fluidstack, Google, and Anthropic, said the required safety documents were destroyed in the blaze. Months later, the fire chief said promised fixes like functioning hydrants still had not been completed.
A viral video shows a large data center in Denver's Elyria-Swansea neighborhood running sprinklers heavily on its grounds while residents face stage-one drought restrictions limiting lawn watering to two days a week. The facility is believed to be an 18-megawatt, 170,000-square-foot site owned by cloud provider CoreSite, though the tenants using the space haven't been confirmed.