Canada needs to double electricity generation by 2050. Could balcony solar help get us there?

In this interview, Calgary Climate Hub chair Joe Vipond explains how plug-in solar systems are giving renters, condo owners, and apartment dwellers access to the energy transition. Already popular in Germany and gaining traction in parts of the United States, balcony solar allows consumers to install a few solar panels and offset a portion of their household electricity use.

We discuss the economics, safety concerns, regulatory barriers, battery storage, and why Canada has been slow to adopt a technology that could lower electricity bills and reduce pressure on the grid.

Most people know TCL as a TV brand. After spending time inside TCL's factories and attending the Global Partners Conference 2026 in China, I discovered something far bigger.

TCL isn't simply a company that sells televisions, air conditioners, and appliances. It has quietly become one of the most important technology manufacturers on the planet. Through its display division, CSOT, TCL now produces display panels used across the industry, operates some of the world's largest manufacturing facilities, and is investing billions into next-generation technologies that could reshape the future of screens.

From manufacturing televisions at an astonishing scale to acquiring major display facilities and building the world's first Generation 8.6 inkjet-printed OLED factory, TCL's growth story is one of the most fascinating developments in modern technology.

This documentary explores what I saw firsthand in China, the scale of TCL's operations, and why this company may be far more important to the global technology industry than most people realize.

Microsoft just released Azure Linux 4.0, their very own Fedora-derived, RPM-based server distribution. But that's not all—they also dropped Azure Container Linux, Coreutils for Windows, and a $5,000+ AI workstation with native Linux GPU passthrough. Is Microsoft truly embracing open source, or are we witnessing the beginning of a new Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy?

In this deep dive, I break down exactly what Microsoft announced at Build 2026, the technical specs of Azure Linux 4.0 (including DNF5, Linux 6.18 LTS, and post-quantum cryptography), and what this means for competitors like Red Hat and Canonical. As a sysadmin with 25 years of IT experience, I'll give you my honest assessment of whether you should trust Microsoft's Linux on your Azure infrastructure.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8824618

How China will dominate the future of energy production and the global fuels market.

I've had this laptop for seven years. It's an Acer Nitro (cheesy name I know). Replaced the ssd and upgraded the memory around 2024, it goes beautifully despite its age. However the battery is running at about 64% efficiency and I'm dreading that any day now it's going to swell or something.

It's an easy laptop to take apart and updrade to an extent. I know the battery is replaceable. The problem is I wonder if it's worth it to just buy a new laptop. Problem is I can't really afford to get a new laptop unless I get something worse than what I have now. Plus I'm not sure how long it's got to live even if I replace the battery.

Plus I'm... attached to the little guy. I've spent so much work fixing it and it's always run so well that I'm sentimental now.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11949166

Archive link: https://archive.ph/EkF2v (Almost all links omitted)

If data brokers can track the devices you take with you, they know where you live, where you go, and what you do. And the stakes are only poised to climb higher, now that surveillance companies that sell automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) are getting in on the game. Defense contractor Leonardo is promoting a new technology called SignalTrace that will package plate cameras with sensors that can scrape unique identifiers tied to your smart devices and make that data available to law enforcement.

A recent report by 404 Media dives into the objective of SignalTrace and how it’s being marketed to authorities. Police, border security, and other government agencies already comprise Leonardo’s customer base, and with this technology, those clients seek to correlate footage from these cameras to phones, tablets, wearables, AirTags, and, naturally, the electronics inside cars themselves.

If SignalTrace can pick up your Bluetooth headphones, you can be damn sure it’ll also be looking out for your vehicle’s 5G hotspot, infotainment system, and even its tire pressure monitoring sensors. Hell, the company includes pet microchips as a potential entry point to tracking.

An excerpt from Leonardo’s own literature on SignalTrace. Leonardo

The goal here, as 404 sums up, is to “bridge the gap between vehicle and occupant.” Previously, these cameras could track a car’s whereabouts at a given time. Throw in a glut of unique identifiers, though, and the job of tying an individual or multiple people to that vehicle becomes trivial—and not something anyone can simply opt out of.

Of course, ALPRs were already bad news; the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that the simple act of repeatedly capturing photos of cars in transit at multiple points of their journeys, day in and day out, was enough to establish someone’s “pattern of life” and even identify those they associate with.

Leonardo was granted the patent for the technology that underpins SignalTrace two years ago. A press release announcing the milestone concludes with a disclaimer that the company’s tech “captures device frequencies emitted into the air” and “does not decrypt or capture the contents of the devices or their communications.” That’s precisely how these firms are able to evade culpability for the surveillance they enable. Whether they’re cracking encryption or not, the results are the same.

For 50 years, the clean energy movement tried to change how Americans think about power. In the end, it may be global turbulence that ultimately moves what decades of advocacy could not. While the motivation may seem misaligned with the original mission, the outcome is what matters.

ev sales are surging at an extraordinary pace across global markets in 2026, with china, europe, and emerging regions driving record growth while north america lags behind. the boom highlights accelerating consumer adoption, falling battery costs, and intensifying competition among automakers worldwide.