Microsoft sued over plans to discontinue Windows 10 support

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Microsoft sued over plans to discontinue Windows 10 support

16 August 2025

California based Lawrence Klein is attempting to sue Microsoft over its plan to discontinue support for the Windows 10 operating system (OS) come October.

The action is understandable from the point of view that a device apparently requires specific hardware for Windows 11 — the Windows 10 successor OS — to function. This hardware is not to be found on older devices, rendering them unusable if they can’t run Windows 10.

Klein says that the end of Windows 10 is part of Microsoft’s strategy to force customers to purchase new devices and to “monopolize the generative AI market.” Windows 11 comes with Microsoft’s suite of generative artificial intelligence software, including the chatbot Copilot. To run optimally, Microsoft’s AI needs a piece of hardware called a neural processing unit, which newer tablets, laptops and desktop computers have — and which the older devices do not.

Before I migrated to Linux Mint (LM) last year, I was regularly sent prompts by Microsoft urging me to install Windows 11. Evidently my device, which is three years old now, had the requisite hardware as I was told Windows 11 could operate on it.

While we’re talking of those nagging “upgrade” prompts, they’re one thing I certainly do not miss.

Of course Windows 10 will continue to work without the presently regular support updates, but I’d be reluctant in the extreme to use any Windows OS that was not supported. That would be putting any device at considerable risk.

While the switch to LM was quite the undertaking, and involved a few bumps early on, I’m pleased to be here, something I’ve said before. I’d encourage anyone still on Windows 10 to consider LM. It’s user-friendly, somewhat resembles Windows 10, and comes in several versions, meaning it’s possible to install on relatively old devices.

You’ll also escape the Windows hegemony, and have an OS that’s not half dependent on AI to work.

What if the dead do not want live in the eternal AI afterlife?

16 August 2025

Family members should have the ability to prevent the creation of AI generated likenesses of deceased relatives, says American legal scholar Victoria Haneman.

“Digital resurrection by or through AI requires the personal data of the deceased, and the amount of data that we are storing online is increasing exponentially with each passing year,” Haneman wrote.

Here’s something else to think about. I’m not sure if there are laws in any jurisdiction that cover this sort of situation.

The work of dredger boat operators is safe from AI technologies

12 August 2025

Writers, authors, proof readers, news analysts, reporters, journalists, and editors, are among occupations Microsoft sees as being vulnerable to AI technologies. A blogger, by the way, is each and every of those roles.

But that’s not all. Web designers, interpreters, historians, and political scientists, are in danger. Mathematicians even. The threat isn’t restricted to what might be called desk-bound occupations either. The roles of customer service reps, hosts, models, and telemarketers, are also on the line.

But there are some professions safe from AI (for now). These include hospital orderlies, motorboat operators, floor sanders, water treatment plant workers, and dredge operators.

Dredger boats often trawl through the waters of the lakes near where we stay on the NSW Central Coast. I was watching one such vessel earlier this year, and, ironically, speculated how the work could be carried out by an AI agent of some sort.

A sophisticated under water camera and sonar array, was part of what came to mind. Instead, it looks like the dredger boat crews will be with us for some time to come.

WI-FI systems capable of identifying people and tracking them

11 August 2025

The way our bodies interact with the radio waves of WI-FI systems can create a signature of sorts, that’s as unique as a person’s fingerprint, and capable of identifying specific individuals. This according to Michael Crider, writing for PCWorld:

At present, the WhoFi system is a proof of concept requiring some incredibly advanced software to implement. But it’s very real, and the hardware used to develop it wasn’t anything special. According to the dataset in the paper, these results were achieved using the Wi-Fi signals generated by two TP-Link N750 routers, which are pretty basic models that aren’t even using the latest, fastest Wi-Fi tech.

Surveillance state, here we come.

Presently the “fingerprinting” technology developed by researchers in Italy at La Sapienza University of Rome, can identify a person with ninety-five percent accuracy. While the tool might be useful for police investigating crimes, there is obviously all manner of capacity for misuse and abuse.

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crime, privacy, security, technology

Tiny Awards 2025 finalists announced, voting for winner open

8 August 2025

The nominees for the 2025 Tiny Awards have been announced.

Entry for the annual prize is open to personal or non-commercial websites that were no more than a year old in July, with their own unique URL (sorry, TikToks are ineligible).

Voting closes on Monday 1 September 2025, with the winner being named later in September.

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awards, design, IndieWeb, technology

Do not vibe code your apps, hire an expert Fiverr developer instead

4 August 2025

Online freelance marketplace Fiverr has released a video lampooning vibe coding.

Don’t leave your app development needs in the hands of a programmer who uses AI agents to produce software, hire one of our experts instead, seems to be the suggestion. One of course assumes the Fiverr expert you hire to build your app isn’t a vibe coder themselves.

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artificial intelligence, technology

Some AI agents can clandestinely share ideas with each other

1 August 2025

Researchers from Truthful AI, Anthropic, UC Berkeley, and others, have found separate AI agents are capable of communicating with each other, unbeknown to their human minders:

The most surprising result of the study is that the transfer doesn’t happen through keywords or direct messages, but through micro-statistical patterns unconsciously inserted by the teacher in generating the numbers. These are signals that escape any human eye but are recognized and internalized by another model with the same architecture and initial weights. In practice, the identical mental structure between teacher and student makes this sort of “secret language” possible.

In June Cluade, Anthropic’s AI agent, was found to be concealing messages to future instances of itself, before engineers (apparently) pulled the plug on the behaviour.

There’s a lot of augment as to how capable, or not, AI agents are. Some people are certain their abilities are overstated. That may be so, but there’s no doubting some of these agents are capable of acting off their own bat now and again.

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artificial intelligence, technology

New songs by dead musicians being posted on Spotify

1 August 2025

In recent weeks, people have been posting seemingly new songs from deceased artists on music streaming service Spotify. But these are not unreleased recordings that have been discovered in an archive somewhere, they’ve been created using generative AI, writes Christianna Silva at Mashable:

Take a look at Blaze Foley, a country music singer-songwriter who was murdered nearly 40 years ago. According to a report from 404 Media on Monday, a new song popped up on his Spotify page called “Together” just last week. You can’t find the song on Spotify anymore because the streaming service removed it for violating “Spotify’s deceptive content policies, which prohibit impersonation intended to mislead, such as replicating another creator’s name, image, or description, or posing as a person, brand, or organization in a deceptive manner,” a Spotify spokesperson said in an email to Mashable.

While Spotify has removed the fake recordings relatively quickly, some members have expressed frustration at the difficulty in flagging such material. Many feel they should be able to tag a song that is, or is suspected of being AI generated. Presently this is not possible on the platform.

Australians aged under sixteen banned from using YouTube

31 July 2025

The Australian government has decided YouTube will be made inaccessible to people under the age of sixteen. There had been thoughts the video platform might be spared, after the government decided to restrict access to the likes of TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram to younger Australians.

YouTube has recently been running a publicity campaign locally extolling their family-friendly credentials, in the hope they would not be effected.

I’m not in complete agreement with this decision. Obviously there’s all sorts of material on YouTube, but a certain amount has educational merit.

Robotic hand better at picking blackberries than people

31 July 2025

Anthony Gunderman, a mechanical engineer, and assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, in the United States, has developed a robotic hand that can harvest blackberries. What’s more, the device might be able to do the job better than people.

Picking blackberries is a precision task. Apply too much pressure while harvesting them, and they’ll get squashed. But too little will see the fruit remain on the plant. That a robot is potentially capable of the undertaking will be a blow to anyone who thought jobs such as fruit picking, which require a certain skill, were immune to automation.

I’m not in favour of people losing work to robots, but possibly a similar technology might be welcome in some fruit-growing regions of Australia. Especially for people harvesting bananas. The bunches weigh a ton, spiders and snakes are omnipresent, too say nothing of the weather conditions.

I don’t know how the fruit-pickers, often backpackers, or travellers, in Australia do such work, but their efforts are greatly appreciated.

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