Thursday, February 19
Daily News Stuff 19 February 2026
Insufficient Obsession Edition
Insufficient Obsession Edition
Top Story
- Open source game engine Godot is getting overwhelmed with pull requests on GitHub. (PC Gamer)
It's taken a surprising amount of time for AI to turn into an avalanche of spam like email and blog comments.
But it's here now, and the spam filters need to catch up.
Quickly.
Tech News
- The CEO of SSD controller company Phison says many consumer electronics companies will be forced to close their doors because they can't buy the chips to continue operations. (Tom's Hardware)
In the talk, he describes a meeting in China where he witnessed mobile and automotive companies (presumably major ones) pleading suppliers for flash memory. He concludes that smaller firms may not be able to secure any flash supply at all, stating that "consumer electronics are finished," and that the market "will see a lot of victims" in the second half of 2026.
There is at least a light at the end of the tunnel.Later in the interview he says that he "[tells his clients] that if the first quarter of this year is painful, really painful, then by year-end, they'll definitely jump off a building."
But it's an oncoming train.
- The Dutch defense secretary says you can jailbreak an F35 just like you can an iPhone, so pissant Eurocrats don't need to worry about the US. (The Register)
First, you can't jailbreak iPhones.
Second, you can't jailbreak F35s either. Unless you are prepared to somehow replace the avionics and the software yourself.
Third, a supplicant threatening their own benefactor rarely turns out well.
But then, the Netherlands - at least, the lower house in their parliament, it has yet to pass their senate - just approved a 36% annual tax on unrealised capital gains, so I think they are simply incapable of learning at this point.
- How many bits do you need to use to create a unique ID tag for everything in the universe, ever? (Jason Fantl)
Less than 800 bits.
For each subatomic particle, at each instant in time.
Whether you attach the little tags with string or tape is left as an exercise for the student.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: Ten points to House M for picking up on the astronomical disclaimer yesterday.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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The slop PRs on github are so bad Microsoft has apparently added a setting to disable PRs on your repos.
Posted by: Rick C at Friday, February 20 2026 01:09 AM (PwFRh)
2
About a year ago I learned how bad the HR departments were swamped with AI applications.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Friday, February 20 2026 02:24 AM (rcPLc)
3
Pretty sure the subject came up when Sun announced their zfs with 128bits strewn liberally throughout, in that 128bits was enough to represent every atom on or in the Earth. Which should be enough for anyone.
Posted by: normal at Friday, February 20 2026 05:04 AM (LADmw)
4
Given that Lockheed tried to flog the concept of subscription software services on combat systems like the F-35 back in 2023, the Dutch might be both behind the times and the ahead of the curve in the same breath.
Granted, trying to jailbreak the F-35 is probably stupid, but especially since a number of Dutch companies are contractors and subcontractors on the JSF program and do you really want to have over 1 billion Euros suddenly go 'poof' because you are being stupid? Well, second thought...
Also, since the Dutch are currently waiting on a sizeable part of the $3 billion in arms orders to be delivered by the US just from 2025, plus probably more from earlier, giving the US a reason to keep those money without delivering on the goods is probably an even worst idea.
But hey, at least the Dutch are still not as stupid as either the Royal Australian Navy, or the Canadians.
Granted, trying to jailbreak the F-35 is probably stupid, but especially since a number of Dutch companies are contractors and subcontractors on the JSF program and do you really want to have over 1 billion Euros suddenly go 'poof' because you are being stupid? Well, second thought...
Also, since the Dutch are currently waiting on a sizeable part of the $3 billion in arms orders to be delivered by the US just from 2025, plus probably more from earlier, giving the US a reason to keep those money without delivering on the goods is probably an even worst idea.
But hey, at least the Dutch are still not as stupid as either the Royal Australian Navy, or the Canadians.
Posted by: cxt217 at Friday, February 20 2026 11:57 AM (ZLF73)
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