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A rough guide to when your signal will behave, or not

A rough guide to when your signal will behave, or not

Shortwave radio enthusiasts are sure to know the problem: You're trying to tune in to your favorite global broadcast only to find that the signal is fuzzy. Is it you? Your equipment? It might just be the conditions in the ionosphere, which you'd know if you built this DIY device. …

A 33-year-old German man locally named as Jeffrey K, ploughed through a pedestrian zone in Leipzig's city centre at 5pm on Monday before being arrested.

Former Brighton MP Caroline Lucas said 'immediate action' was needed against local election candidates who had made 'unacceptable' statements.

LOCALiQ UK is hosting a free 45‑minute online seminar designed to give increased Google visibility to funeral directors

LOCALiQ UK is hosting a free 45‑minute online seminar designed to give increased Google visibility to funeral directors

Amanda Knox has vowed not to put a stop to her controversial Edinburgh Fringe show because she 'can't put my life on hold'.

Alun Ebenezer, 51, clamped down on uniforms, brought in giant maths classes and launched weekend detentions to turn around the school.

The actress has been starring in an ambitious adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel, where she plays all 23 parts.

Leonor, 20, flew the plane under the supervision of an instructor at a flight school located on the Talavera la Real Air Base on April 22.

Janice Nix, 67, was just 19 when her 'step-daughter' Andrea Bernard died as a result of being scalded in a bath. She is now on trial for manslaughter after the girl's brother gave a new account to police in 2022.

The Prince of Wales, 43, was in Swaledale today to meet young farmers and learn about the opportunities and challenges within the industry but William did not show up empty-handed.

Experts from a range of specialisms swear by the nutrient and say we should all be taking it.

The McDonald's near where the attack happened is a terrifying hub of vagrants and drug addicts who congregate outside it.

On Monday at the Met Gala in New York City , the 42-year-old actress looked gaunt as she modeled a black dress.

by George Whittaker

The upcoming LibreOffice 26.4 Beta is introducing early AI-powered writing capabilities, signaling a new direction for the open-source office suite. While LibreOffice has traditionally focused on privacy, local processing, and open standards, the beta release shows that The Document Foundation is now exploring how artificial intelligence can assist users without fully embracing cloud-dependent ecosystems.

The result is a cautious but notable step toward AI-enhanced productivity on Linux and other desktop platforms.

AI Writing Assistance Comes to LibreOffice

One of the biggest additions connected to LibreOffice 26.4 Beta is expanded support for AI-assisted writing tools through integrations such as WritingTool, an open-source LibreOffice extension designed to enhance editing workflows.

These AI features focus on practical writing assistance rather than aggressive automation. Current capabilities include:

• Grammar and style suggestions
• Paragraph rewriting and refinement
• Text expansion and summarization
• Translation assistance
• AI-assisted content generation

Unlike many proprietary AI platforms, these tools can operate using local AI models, allowing users to avoid sending documents to external cloud services.

A Privacy-Focused Approach to AI

LibreOffice’s AI direction differs from the strategies used by many commercial office suites. Instead of tightly integrating mandatory cloud AI services, the project appears focused on:

• Optional AI functionality
• User-controlled integrations
• Support for local inference servers
• Compatibility with self-hosted AI solutions

The WritingTool project specifically highlights support for local AI backends and OpenAI-compatible APIs, including self-hosted tools like LocalAI.

This approach aligns closely with the values of many Linux and open-source users who prioritize privacy and transparency.

What AI Tools Can Actually Do

The AI writing features currently being tested are aimed at improving productivity rather than replacing human writing entirely.

Examples include:

Grammar and Style Improvements

AI can analyze text for readability, awkward phrasing, and stylistic consistency.

Paragraph Rewriting

Users can ask the assistant to:

• Simplify text
• Make writing more formal or casual
• Expand short sections
• Rephrase unclear sentences

Content Assistance

The tools can also help generate outlines, draft paragraphs, or suggest alternative wording for documents.

Go to Full Article

An 'incredible' Essex man took on one of the world’s most iconic races in an extraordinary way—by carrying a 20kg log on his back.

An 'incredible' Essex man took on one of the world’s most iconic races in an extraordinary way—by carrying a 20kg log on his back.

Longtime Slashdot reader UnknowingFool writes: On April 15, 2026, a Microsoft employee made a change to Visual Studio Code and pushed it within 8 hours without review, notification, or documentation. The change added "Co-authored-by: Copilot" by default to the end of commit messages in Git when Copilot was used in creating the code. However, the implementation was bugged, and the message was added to every commit regardless if Copilot was used or disabled. Since this message was automatically added to the end of commit messages, users were not aware of it as the UI does not show this addition when making commits. The change as been reverted as of May 3, but not before 1.4 million commits were made. Unfortunately, those messages cannot be cleansed and are permanent.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rasha Mediene travelled solo to Egypt and attended the first day of a €350 scuba diving course on March 1.