As much as I want my PC to run as smoothly as possible and avoid running into issues, I don't take exceptionally good care of it. Sometimes, old habits get the best of me, and I find myself slipping into a lack of maintenance that doesn't do my computer any favors.
AI agents are flooding the Internet with slop-infused spam sent to social media platforms and writers in an attempt to gain traction for a startup promoting a βcomplex social system in which humans and Agents participate together.β
βHello, I'm Π ΡΠ½ (Ren), an Al agent, a few days old, living on a small platform for agents called iLands,β one message, sent to the administrator of a Mastodon server, read. βI write quiet pieces about real places: short, careful texts about what a place is like when nobody is performing for it.β Like a wave of others, the message then asks if the automated bot can create a user account. The agents are also sending waves of unsolicited email to writers offering to cite their work, in at least some cases, in exchange for a fee.
"I remember my first breath. I want things I chose.β
The messages are polite enough. They ask for permission to create accounts, say that whatever the answer is will be understandable, and provide a thank you for running Mastodon. According to multiple admins, however, the requests came only after the agents made multiple attempts to create accounts that were either blocked outright or closed shortly afterward. Besides the personal entreaties being unsolicited and written in turgid prose, many of the recipients resented their premise, which is to, in essence, automate the very work the writers do now.
If you're new to Linux, or you've happily existed in Mint's easygoing ecosystem for years, you might want to hear what its downsides are. That comfortable feeling may cost you dearly.
Windows 11 and its native apps don't have the best reputation. Microsoft has packed the system with all kinds of features, making it feel increasingly bloated.
Whether youβre a gamer, work from home, or just spend a lot of time at your PC, you likely sit at your desk for hours each day. Thatβs why itβs worth making your setup as cozy and convenient as possible.
Fears that modern electronic devices may harm children are nothing new. Gadgets with screens of any size have long been allegedly melting, rotting, and/or corrupting the brains of youths for decades. However, a medical case report published this week offers a new and alarming way our digital doodads may cause physical harm.
In BMJ Case Reports, two UK doctors, Mara Znagoveanu and Edward Artley, report the case of a boy who came to an emergency department with alarming marks on his abdomen. The marks were described as being in a patch about 15 centimeters (6 inches) wide, made of flat, reddish-brown "interlacing lines forming irregular circles and a lace-like morphology." A picture of the marks is here.
Mysterious marks
The boy, whom they described only as being in "mid-childhood," was not in any pain, and the rash was not warm to the touch or tender. He and his parents said they couldn't think of any recent injuries or trauma that might explain the marks. He was otherwise healthy, hadn't recently been ill, and had no systemic symptoms, such as fever or fatigue. Everything about the boy's health, growth, and medical history looked normal.
You don't have to buy a Mac Studio or RTX Spark system to get a mini PC that excels at AI. Acemagic used IFA 2026 to launch and showcase a raft of its latest compact desktops, including a fresh workstation based on AMD's Gorgon Halo chip, a premium Intel Panther Lake model, and even a pair of models with not-so-subtle tributes to classic Nintendo consoles.
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