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Westbrook Regional Vocational students are business-building champions

Portland Press Herald Business - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 1:47pm
Vladan Napijalo and Evan Gilbert will represent southern Maine at the national Junior Achievement Future Bound competition in Boston.

Tech CEOs Are Apparently Suffering From AI Psychosis

Slashdot - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 1:00pm
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: There is a certain wildness in the tech industry these days that both mimics previous eras of large changes, like cloud computing (runaway costs in the early days), and is like nothing we've ever seen before (record revenues accompanied by mass layoffs). One possible explanation: tech executives, especially CEOs, are collectively suffering from delusions of AI grandeur. And at least one tech CEO has said as much out loud: Box founder Aaron Levie. "CEOs are uniquely prone to AI psychosis because they're sufficiently distant from the last mile of work that still has to happen to generate most value with AI," Levie wrote on X. CEOs "play with AI," develop a prototype, or generate a contract, to use Levie's examples, and then make the leap to believing agents can do the work. But these top-level executives aren't the people who have to review code, discover bugs, and identify calls to hallucinated libraries before software is deployed. They aren't responsible for training AI models on a company's idiosyncratic contract terms, nor do they have to spend days combing through contracts to find sneaky terms, as Levie indicates. In other words, Levie's theory posits, CEOs don't really understand processes well enough to know what really can and can't be automated. But that lack of knowledge doesn't stop them from acting on their beliefs. [...] So what are CEOs to do instead? Levie advises CEOs to use AI "a ton" to really see what it can and can't do, "and come out the other side with an appreciation for both the upside and the real work."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

8 Best Computer Speakers (2026) After Testing 25+ Pairs

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 12:30pm
These WIRED-tested computer speakers, from stereo speakers to surround sound, will suit any budget.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston To Step Down After 19 Years

Slashdot - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 12:00pm
Dropbox founder Drew Houston is stepping down as CEO after 19 years and will become executive chairman, with product chief Ashraf Alkarmi set to take over after a co-CEO transition period. CNBC reports: Drew Houston founded Dropbox nearly two decades ago at age 24, eventually becoming a household name in Silicon Valley and the first tech entrepreneur to take a company from the Y Combinator incubator program all the way to the public market. Now, at 43, Houston is ready to do something else. [...] By almost any measure, Houston has had a great run at Dropbox, helping pioneer the cloud storage market, competing head-to-head with Google and Apple and building a net worth of more than $2 billion, thanks to substantial ownership in his company. But in the land of outsized expectations, Houston has overseen a company that peaked too soon and never became a generation-defining brand. Dropbox's current market cap of just over $6 billion is down by half from the high price on its first day of trading in 2018, and is below the $10 billion valuation it was ascribed by private market investors in 2014. [...] In its latest quarterly earnings report, Dropbox said it has more than 18 million paying users, and the service remains popular with media professionals, graphic designers, architects, and others who share files and photos as part of their daily work. "Part of me has always thought, oh yeah, I'll be the CEO of Dropbox until my last gasp of my career," he said. "There's never a perfect time, there was no part of me where I was like, 'oh, this date is the date where it's going to happen.'" Since Alkarmi joined Dropbox from Vimeo in late 2024, the company has "become a lot more responsive to our customers and is taking bigger swings on innovation," Houston said. "I trust the right leader," he said. "The company's in the right place."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nano Dimension unloads MarkForged as proxy fight with shareholder escalates

Mass High Tech News - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 11:44am
The move is part of a three-phase strategic plan aimed at becoming profitable. Investor Murchinson Ltd. has launched another campaign for control.

Boston infrastructure investor ArcLight Capital to sell for up to $1.05B

Mass High Tech News - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 11:34am
The deal includes a base price of $650 million plus up to $400 million in contingent consideration. The firm has invested over $80 billion since 2001.

I Like Ferrari's Luce EV. But This Is Why It's Heartbreaking

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 11:07am
Designed by Jony Ive and a host of ex-Cupertino colleagues, the Luce shows us what might have been had Apple made good on its $10 billion bet.

Company Behind School Bus AI Cameras Wants To Share Footage With Police

Slashdot - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 11:00am
joshuark writes: BusPatrol, a company that has installed AI-powered cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., now plans to turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, and give that data to law enforcement, 404 Media has learned. BusPatrol has already taken steps to share the collected data with law enforcement contracting giant Axon, according to leaked BusPatrol documents and a source with knowledge of the plans. BusPatrol has acknowledged how controversial its plan to collect and share this data is, pointing specifically to concerns about ICE using license plate data, but emphasizes the likely success of selling the angle of protecting children. "Who would have thought that school buses would be turned into the mass surveillance state?," Michael Soyfer, an attorney from the Institute for Justice, which has various ongoing ALPR-related lawsuits The Institute for Justice argues that warrantless use of ALPR systems is unconstitutional, describing similar systems as a "dragnet." Kate Spree, senior manager of brand communications at BusPatrol, said in an email "This inquiry is based on a false premise and inaccurate information. BusPatrol does not pool or sell data across communities; student safety program data is used only to support the BusPatrol program in the community where that data was created." When 404 Media asked clarifying questions and said that the reporting is based on leaked BusPatrol material, Spree stopped replying to text messages and emails. This plan gives new meaning to the animated cartoon series "The Magic School Bus"... Further reading: FBI Wants to Buy Nationwide Access to License Plate Readers

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Xreal’s New $299 ‘xbx’ Smart Glasses Channel Xbox Vibes

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 9:54am
These display smart glasses can connect to a phone, laptop, or gaming handheld and project the screen to your eyeballs.

The Osprey Farpoint 40 Has Been My Go-To Travel Bag for 8 Years

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 7:01am
I’m a chronic overpacker, but this backpack is my perfect match, with its huge capacity, numerous pockets, and impressive durability.

Starlink and Amazon May Be Able To Buy Into EU Mobile Satellite Spectrum Plan

Slashdot - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 7:00am
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Elon Musk's Starlink and Amazon's low-earth-orbit satellite business may be able to acquire some European mobile satellite spectrum next year, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. But they said two-thirds of the satellite spectrum that allows mobile devices and vehicles to communicate seamlessly even in remote locations, would be reserved for European companies. U.S. companies Viasat and EchoStar hold licenses that are due to expire in May 2027 and the European Commission has been considering how to allocate future spectrum at the same time as the bloc pushes to reduce reliance on U.S. tech. The European Union's IRIS2 multi-orbit array of 290 satellites, a response to Starlink, will be among the European companies to receive some spectrum, the sources said. British and Norwegian companies can also bid for a license, the people said. Details of the proposal, set to be announced on Wednesday, could still change at a meeting of commissioners on the day, one of the sources. Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said EU-wide satellite connectivity was "synonymous with resilience, security, and capability" given the current geopolitical context. "Satellite connectivity is a key piece of our technological sovereignty, our security, and our defense, as also highlighted by IRIS2," he added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Waymo Takes Its Self-Driving Cars to Virginia

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 7:00am
The company is mapping Alexandria and, soon, Arlington—right across from the power center of Washington, DC.

Porn company fined £600,000 by Ofcom over age check failings

BBC Tech News - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 6:33am
Ofcom said Youngtek Solutions Ltd did not have checks between July and September 2025, but has since brought in verification.

Corsair Galleon 100 SD Review: Stream Deck Now Included

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 6:00am
Corsair unites Stream Deck functionality with Drop keyboard design expertise on its latest Galleon SD 100.

Editorial: It's time for our own ‘tech weeks’

Mass High Tech News - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 5:09am
Despite that Boston Tech Week was started by a Silicon Valley VC firm, the idea of a week dedicated to the tech-business community is worth celebrating — and copying. Can the state's new economic development bill help fund it?

Menu prices in Portland are high. Restaurants aren’t happy about it either.

Portland Press Herald Business - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 4:00am
Local restaurant and bar operators struggle with rising costs and shrinking profit margins.

American Airlines Picks Starlink For In-Flight Wi-Fi

Slashdot - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 3:00am
American Airlines plans to install SpaceX's Starlink Wi-Fi on more than 500 narrow-body Airbus aircraft starting early next year. It does not, however, have any immediate plans to change providers on its Boeing fleet, which currently uses a mix of Viasat and Panasonic. CNBC reports: American in January rolled out free in-flight Wi-Fi for members of its frequent flyer program, following United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and others. Delta in March said it would use Amazon Leo for in-flight Wi-Fi for hundreds of jets starting in 2028. United, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, which merged with Hawaiian Airlines in 2024, have selected Starlink. The move is a big win for SpaceX as it prepares for a potentially massive IPO next month. SpaceX said Starlink and its connectivity business generated $11.39 billion in revenue last year, accounting for 61% of the company's total sales.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

50% Off DoorDash Promo Code | June 2026

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 1:00am
Explore today’s top DoorDash promo codes for $25 off your first order, free delivery, and 50% off DashPass for students and select users.

Lovehoney Coupon Offers: Toys, Lingerie, and Gift Set Discounts

Wired Top Stories - Wed, 05/27/2026 - 1:00am
Save on Lovehoney, including bestselling toys, lingerie, and popular gift sets for date nights, self-care, and couples’ play.

A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned

Slashdot - Tue, 05/26/2026 - 11:30pm
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Aerodynamic drag is a major "barrier" in high-speed airplanes, automobiles, and bullet trains. This is because a design with less aerodynamic drag allows the aircraft to move at higher speeds with less energy. When an aircraft or car body moves at high speed, a thin layer of air called the "boundary layer" is formed on its surface. This boundary layer has two states: laminar flow, in which air flows in an orderly fashion, and turbulent flow, which involves turbulence. The longer the air stays in the laminar flow state with low friction, the smaller the air resistance becomes, but as the air speed increases, it transitions to turbulent flow. The key to reducing aerodynamic drag is how to delay this transition to turbulence. For more than 80 years, the principle of "the surface of an object must be smooth" has been the basic premise of aeronautical engineering throughout the world in order to suppress the transition to turbulence and reduce aerodynamic drag. This premise was based on the results of a 1940 study by Ichiro Tani, a Japanese aerodynamicist who quantitatively demonstrated the relationship between "surface roughness" (an indicator of the state of the machined surface) and turbulent transition, arguing that surface roughness, which was unavoidable with the manufacturing technology of the time, prevented laminar flow from being realized. However, in 1989 Tani reinterpreted the experimental data on rough-surface pipes obtained by fluid engineer Johann Nikulase in the 1930s, bringing a new perspective that "roughness may not necessarily only promote turbulent transition and increase fluid resistance." Inheriting this idea, a research group led by Yasuaki Kohama of Tohoku University experimentally demonstrated in the 1990s that fibrous rough surfaces, which have fine fibrous irregularities on their surface, have the effect of delaying transition under certain conditions. The same Tohoku University research team recently announced a discovery that significantly advances this trend. Aiko Yakino, associate professor at Tohoku University's Institute of Fluid Science, and her research group were the first in the world to demonstrate that aerodynamic drag can be reduced by up to 43.6 percent simply by applying distributed micro-roughness (DMR), a surface roughness so fine and irregular that it cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. This technology is fundamentally different from the "rivulet (shark skin) process," which is known as a typical aerodynamic drag reduction technology. The rivulet process mimics the fine longitudinal grooves in shark skin, and by carving grooves approximately 0.1 mm wide along the direction of airflow, it aligns the vortices that occur near the wall surface of turbulent airflow areas. DMR, on the other hand, delays the switch from laminar to turbulent flow by means of random and minute irregularities. The flow zones it affects and the mechanisms it employs are based on completely different concepts.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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