Daily Tech News 15 March 2025

• SpaceX has launched the latest crew mission to the International Space Station, with four astronauts onboard to take over operations and relieve Butch and Sundance who have been stranded there ever since the trouble-stricken Boeing Starliner test seventeen years ago. (AP News)
  
  The mission was delayed a little because the latest new Crew Dragon module needed a new battery, so SpaceX chose to re-use an existing module.
  
  
  
• CNN wants you to know that the stranded astronauts were not stranded and the decision by the Biden administration to leave them there never actually happened. (CNN)
  
  Thanks, CNN. Where would we be without you?

• In other space news, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the deceased Athena lander, which a week ago landed safely and then tipped over and sank into the moondust. (Space)
  
  This was Intuitive Machines' second mission, after February 2024's Odysseus lander, which... Landed safely and then tipped over and sank into the moondust.
  
  Intuitive's IM-3 lander - which doesn't have a catchy name yet, like gerbils and hamsters that might not survive little Timmy's tender care for very long - is due to launch early next year.
  
  
  
• No-one knows what the hell an AI agent is. (Tech Crunch)
  
  In particular, the neoadjective "agentic" needs to die.
  
  
  
• Google is rolling out a fix for all the dead Chromecasts, of which there are apparently many. (The Register)
  
  The problem is apparently an authentication certificate baked into the firmware of some models which has now expired. Without that, the device loses connectivity to most Google services.
  
  Once the fix is ready, Chomecasts which have been left powered on should pick it up automatically.
  
  If you tried to fix it yourself with a factory reset, your problems might run a little deeper. Google will post a guide to restore from that. Soon.
  
  
  
• A new Copilot upgrade for Xbox plans to ruin gaming for you. (Hot Hardware)
  
  Thanks, Microsoft. Where would we be without you?
  
  
  
• Linux or landfill? What happens to old PC with Windows 10 going gently into that good night this October. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Or October next year if you pay the thirty bucks.
  
  
  
• Valve may be planning to launch SteamOS for desktop users soon. (WCCFTech)
  
  That may be a viable solution.
  
  SteamOS already runs the Steam Deck and Lenovo's Legion Go. Windows games mostly just work on it. Throw on a browser and you have 90% of what 90% of people need.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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