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There will be no JP’s Product Pick of the Week this week as Lars competes in the regional qualifier for Creepy Smile Roller Skating.  The show will return next week, Tuesday, June 2nd.  You can catch up on previous episodes here.

Do you have an old USB scanner that your computer cannot talk to? Then the yes-we-scan app is for you. Connect your scanner and get scanning. Privacy. The things you scan never leave your computer. How it works. Your web browser emulates a whole PC running Linux with open-source scanning software (SANE). It connects that […]

If your garment is free of components that can fill with water (microphones, hollow-cased switches, etc.) and can usually go in the washer when it’s not adorned with electronics, it still probably can! Agitation will increase the natural wear on any garment and circuit, so be sure to inspect the wearable for frayed threads, loosened […]

California lawmakers are moving to exempt most open-source operating systems from the state's upcoming age-verification law after backlash from Linux and privacy advocates who warned that the original rules could force decentralized projects to collect users' ages. The amendment would likely shield major Linux distributions, though SteamOS and other Linux-based platforms tied to proprietary app stores may still face compliance questions. Tom's Hardware reports: Assembly Bill 1856 (AB 1856), currently moving through California's legislature ahead of committee reviews in June, would amend the state's earlier age-assurance law by excluding software distributed under licenses that allow users to "copy, redistribute, and modify the software." The proposed amendment specifically states: "Operating system provider" does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software. The amendment follows months of backlash after California passed the original Assembly Bill 1043 (AB 1043), formally known as the Digital Age Assurance Act, in late 2025. The law sought to shift online age verification away from individual websites and apps and down to the operating-system level instead. Under the original law, operating systems would be required to request a user's age or birth date during device setup, then expose an "age bracket signal" to apps and app stores. The law, which defined brackets such as "under 13," "13-15," "16-17," and "18+," immediately raised questions about how such requirements would apply to decentralized, open-source software ecosystems. [...] AB 1856 does not repeal the original Digital Age Assurance Act. Instead, it narrows the definition of who qualifies as an "operating system provider" under the law. Commercial platforms with proprietary app ecosystems could remain subject to California's age-assurance requirements even if most open-source Linux distributions are ultimately exempted. California Assembly Member Buffy Wicks introduced the amendment on February 11, 2026. However, the open-source exemption language appeared in later revisions that began drawing attention across Linux and privacy communities. The latest version is dated May 18, 2026, and as of May 19, 2026, the bill was read a second time and ordered to third reading.

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Phosphene is an open-source, menu bar-based video wallpaper engine designed natively for macOS Tahoe. It seamlessly integrates your custom videos directly into the macOS system’s native wallpaper picker using private Apple APIs, allowing you to use high-quality personal video loops as your live desktop background.  Native Integration: Bypasses clunky workarounds by tying directly into the […]

Flipper has released the full technical specifications of the Flipper One, noting that since the device is under active development, specifications may change. Some interesting highlights: Main CPU — RK3576 Low-power MCU — RP2350B RAM: 8 GB LPDDR5 Monochrome LCD display Resolution: 256 × 144 pixels< Grayscale: 64 levels (6-bit) Interface: QSPI (driven by MCU) […]

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Pope Leo XIV on Monday set out a sweeping vision for corporate executives, politicians and individuals who will shape and be shaped by the future of artificial intelligence, warning leaders to safeguard humanity from A.I.'s most disruptive effects. Leo's declaration came in the form of a papal encyclical, an open letter to "all people of good will" that ran to roughly 42,300 words in its English version. It outlined his desire to protect human dignity and agency in an age in which technology threatens to replace humans in many professional and social roles. He presented it alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, a major A.I. developer, in a symbolic gesture of dialogue between leaders of the spiritual and technological worlds. While emphasizing that "technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity," he wrote that "the pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs." Among other things, Leo called for: - government regulation of the private companies that are driving the development of A.I. - protection and retraining for workers whose jobs are threatened - education to help students think critically about the technology - action to protect children from violent, hypersexualized or fake information online that is often generated by A.I. - safeguards to ensure that humans, not artificial intelligence, remain responsible for all decisions regarding the use of weapons. Above all he emphasized the importance of retaining a fundamental social role for all human beings. "A society that guarantees employment to only a small fraction of the population, despite having a high level of technical development, risks exposing many to forced inactivity," he wrote. "This creates a paradox of material progress and anthropological regression that undermines the foundations of a just and stable social peace," he added. Anthropic's Christopher Olah said companies like his own need moral guidance to avoid being swayed by "a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing." "We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend," Olah said. "Today is just the beginning -- the start of a long collaboration between those of us who are building this and those who can see what we, from the inside, cannot."

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If you missed this week’s Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter, here is the ICYMI (in case you missed it) version. To never miss another issue, subscribe now! – You’ll get a terrific newsletter each Monday (which is out before this post). 12,370 subscribers worldwide! The next newsletter goes out Monday morning and subscribing is the best way to keep […]

Hermes, god of heralds, is one of the busiest figures in Greek mythology. He is the messenger god with winged sandals, a winged cap or winged helmet and a job description that stretches across roads, markets, dreams, doorways, jokes, bargains and the border between life and death.

How far are we from AI public companies? The truth is that there are already publicly traded companies that build artificial intelligence tools, sell the hardware behind them or use AI so deeply that it shapes their business.

Brahma is the creator god in Hinduism, the divine figure tied to the first spark of cosmic order, sacred knowledge and living beings.

Malachite is the kind of mineral that makes copper chemistry visible. Its bright green bands come from copper, carbon dioxide, water and oxygen reacting in the upper parts of copper deposits, turning buried metal chemistry into a green mineral people have prized for thousands of years.

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi). This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information that you may have missed, all in one place! You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no […]

Get to folding because today is all about paper airplanes. Are you going for speed, control, distance? What is your special technique? Paper airplanes offer some great lessons in physics and are fun for all ages. Every May 26 is National Paper Airplane Day Some paper airplane tips on the Adafruit Learning System: Paper Airplane […]

The Supreme Court’s typographic style has been stunningly consistent for — no pun intended — well over a century.

"The expansion of SpaceX's Starlink network of internet relay satellites continued Monday with a Memorial Day launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station," reports Spaceflight Now. The mission added another 29 Starlink satellites to more than 10,000 already in low Earth orbit: This was SpaceX's 60th orbital flight of the year, consisting of 59 Falcon 9 rockets and one Falcon Heavy rocket... Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, [Falcon 9 first stage] B1078 landed on the drone ship, 'A Shortfall of Gravitas,' positioned in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina. This was the 151st landing for this vessel and the 614th booster landing to date for SpaceX. Meanwhile, the second stage shut down eight minutes and 39 seconds into flight and entered a coast phase, before short second burn at T+52 minutes. The stack of Starlink satellites deployed 61 minutes and 26 seconds after launch. On X.com SpaceX shared footage of the booster rocket landing, and a longer video showing Starship's 12th test flight Friday.

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