How California built one of the world’s largest public-sector IT systems
TL;DR FI$Cal is California’s consolidated financial management system, conceived in 2005 and declared functionally complete in 2021. The PeopleSoft- and…
The New Surveillance State Is You: Citizens Now Turn Tech on Police
TL;DR A Wired feature by Andrew Couts argues that the balance of watching has shifted: civilians are increasingly recording and…
EU digital-euro wallet aims to challenge US card-payment dominance
TL;DR The European Central Bank is pressing ahead with a digital-euro plan framed as a response to US dominance in…
Europe’s push for a sovereign cloud: Building an ‘Airbus’ for data
TL;DR European governments and industry are trying to replicate the Airbus model to create a competitive, sovereign cloud stack that…
China drafts rules barring AI clones that impersonate relatives for elders
TL;DR China’s Cyberspace Administration published draft rules for ‘humanized’ AI companions that would bar systems from simulating specific relatives for…
CEOs Are Increasingly Costly: Could Automation Replace Top Executives?
TL;DR Rising executive pay and concentrated top-heavy payrolls have renewed questions about whether CEO tasks could be automated. The debate…
Debate on ‘Anti‑AI’ Open Source Licenses: Can Licenses Block AI Training?
TL;DR A Hacker News thread examined a proposed MIT‑style license variant that included an added instruction aimed at automated systems.…
Flight-Tested and Reviewed: The 10 Best Drones of 2025 for Every Budget
TL;DR A year-end roundup tests and ranks ten drones across price tiers, adding several new models and noting regulatory shifts…
Global Trade Is Shifting: The Dollar’s Era of Dominance May Be Ending
TL;DR A Wired piece by Keyu Jin argues that 2026 will mark the start of measurable erosion in the US…
Public Domain Day 2026: 1930 Works and 1925 Recordings Enter US Public Domain
TL;DR On January 1, 2026, thousands of U.S. copyrighted works published in 1930 will enter the public domain, and sound…