PERSONAL TECH

Microsoft won the OLE vs OpenDoc wars. Now it’s saying OLE dependencies don’t matter

Microsoft’s June Windows update has upset some third-party applications that use Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) automation to open or control Office apps, leaving users with failed document launches and, in some cases, no error message to explain what went wrong.

According to Microsoft, “reports indicate that this issue may affect applications such as CCH Engagement, Workpaper Manager, dental software (such as Dentrix and Softdent), and Zotero; other similar applications might also be impacted.”

The workaround is to “open the application or document directly instead of launching it from the affected third-party application.”

Microsoft was quick to point out that this wasn’t its problem. The third parties concerned are “independent of Microsoft.”

“We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.”

That would be fair enough were it not for the fact that these third parties are relying on Windows plumbing that has been around since the 1990s, and abruptly breaking or changing something in a Windows release doesn’t give those vendors much time to deal with the problem.

OLE allows one application to control another – for example, firing up a Word document or Excel spreadsheet from an accounting application. When it works properly, users don’t need to switch between applications. The process should be seamless.

If opening the file directly, which somewhat defeats the point of OLE, doesn’t help, ordinary users will have to wait for a fix in “a future Windows update.” There is a mitigation for affected devices within organizations, though obtaining it requires contacting Microsoft support for business customers.

Veteran techies may find this mess ironic, given that in the 1990s Microsoft went all-in on OLE and ultimately saw off the rival OpenDoc tech backed by Apple and IBM.

The issue is the first that Microsoft has acknowledged in the patch, although the company’s forums are full of users complaining about other difficulties, including OneDrive and BitLocker problems. ®

Photo credit: Doroni Aerospace
Doroni Aerospace has spent the better part of a decade moving from early garage experiments to a finished design it believes regular people could operate. The H1-X sits at the center of that effort. It is a two-seat electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft built first for personal use rather than fleet service or air taxi routes.

The H1-X’s tandem wings measure nearly 18 feet across, but its eight ducted fans do the majority of the heavy lifting when it takes off and lands. Once it reaches cruising speed, two additional ducted fans at the back keep it moving forward. The carbon fiber design reduces the empty weight to approximately 1,850 pounds while still allowing it to carry a 500-pound payload. It’s nearly six feet tall, 16 to 18 feet long, depending on who’s measuring, yet small enough to fit in most conventional two-car garages without having to fold up.

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However, having the fans tucked away changes everything. Nothing spinning madly in the open means you’re not taking a low pass over the garden or driveway and colliding with plants, a fence, or people. The ducts guide the thrust downward, which decreases noise. Once up to speed, the wings begin to generate lift on their own, the vertical fans slow down, and the range and battery life improve dramatically because you don’t have to stay in a continual hover state like some other designs.

Short hops in urban and suburban settings are crucial for performance. Its top speed is 120 mph, and cruises at 95 mph. It currently has a range of roughly 60 miles, but the manufacturer believes that after the batteries are sorted out, it will reach 100 miles. Its battery can be charged to 80% capacity in 25 minutes using one of those electric car chargers, giving you approximately 45 minutes of flight time. It won’t be straining up into the stratosphere, but rather 500 to 1,500 feet above land.

You sit side by side with the pilot behind a large clear canopy that allows you to see all around. The interior resembles a modern car rather than a traditional aircraft cockpit, with a single joystick controlling all flight controls, including roll, pitch, and yaw. And then there’s the self-stabilizing software, which helps eliminate all of the minor changes required to keep it stable. Taking off and landing is as simple as tapping one or two buttons.

The real change, however, is in the software, which is powered by what Doroni calls SOUL AI. The central screen displays all of the important information, including navigation, battery, time to destination, altitude, speed, nearest charging sites, and weather, on one screen. There are sensors all around the place that monitor 360 degrees. Radar, LiDAR, and cameras work together to detect obstructions and keep you on track, even if you mistakenly let go of the stick. They want to make the pilot more of a guide, a navigator, rather than a hands-on controller.

Safety is a key consideration throughout the design process, as the ducted fans eliminate one of the classic risks, the propeller. In the event of an emergency, a ballistic parachute provides an alternative means of safely landing. The safety features include redundant motors in a few ducts and continuous sensor monitoring to keep an eye on things at all times. The Doroni team is aiming for certification as a Light Sport Aircraft under the FAA’s new MOSAIC standards, which happen to match the H1-X’s size and characteristics. The company’s previous test vehicles, such as the H1-X, received special airworthiness certificates and successfully completed manned test flights.

Doron Merdinger launched the company in 2016, and they recently unveiled a full-scale model of the H1-X at their annual ‘Soul of the Sky’ event in Florida. People were able to go inside, check out the interface, and even test out a flight simulator. We’ve already received pre-orders for several hundred units, indicating that lots of individuals are eager to become involved. Pricing is projected to be in the $350,000 to $400,000 region, with deliveries set to begin in 2028 once the certification process is completed.

John Boss needed reliable oversight for a workshop packed with projects still under wraps. Standard internet cameras record events after the fact and offer little in the moment. He chose a different route and built Walter, a workshop sentry meets security robot, instead.

Walter hangs hung from the ceiling on a unique motorized mount, which at first view resembles a high-end pan-tilt security camera. The camera module, lights, and sensors sit in the tiny black shell, but a second look changes everything, as the inclusion of a full-fledged Nerf blaster gives the whole thing personality.

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A geared lazy Susan bearing controls the unit’s movement, allowing it to swivel smoothly in a full circle. Stepper motors control the pan and tilt movements through a pulley and gearing arrangement. A slip ring keeps the cables from twisting or becoming tangled as the joint rotates, while limit switches keep everything under control in either direction. Overall, the movement is relatively rapid and precise.

The Raspberry Pi 5 serves as the Walter’s brain, processing all of the video from the USB camera, running computer vision procedures to detect and track movement, managing network connections, and making major decisions. Meanwhile, an Arduino Nano clone serves as the motor control system, accepting direct orders from the Pi to ensure responsiveness while the Pi works on the vision and logic. An Android tablet combined with a gamepad allows you to control from anywhere while also providing a low-latency visual stream.

When Walter is left to its own devices, it operates in Sentry mode. Motion detection comes in and can even give you notifications, after which computer vision takes over and tracks whatever caused the movement. The camera and mount maintain focus on the subject without requiring human intervention at any point. Voice recognition adds an additional layer of control; a microphone listens for orders or a spoken password to activate or disable the system, and a small USB speaker allows Walter to respond, give a challenge, or send you an alert.

The defensive options are a little more intriguing, as you get two high-intensity LED floodlights that can either flood the area or generate some very blinding glare. A pair of lasers provides a couple of brilliant points of light that are useful for aiming and visual emphasis. Then there’s the Nerf blaster, which can shoot darts under human or automatic control, and the noise alone is enough to deter even the most determined unwanted visitor.

Walter is the real deal, as it watches the room like a standard camera, but also moves, speaks, shines a light, and generally participates when necessary. When not in use, the ceiling mount hides it, and the pan-tilt mechanics and software allow it to cover the entire space. For a maker space with work that isn’t quite ready for public viewing, the system provides an excellent blend of surveillance and active deterrence that seems like it’s on your side rather than simply sitting there looking technological.
[Source]

OpenAI burned through $3.7bn in the first three months of 2026, more than half its revenue of $5.7bn over the same period, according to The Information, which cited documents the company shared with shareholders.

Both numbers tripled from a year earlier, a symmetry that captures the company’s peculiar position: growing faster than almost any business in history, and spending faster still.

The tripling is the figure worth pausing on. Revenue of $5.7bn in a single quarter would be the envy of nearly any technology company; revenue that grew threefold year on year is rarer still. The trouble is that the cost of producing it grew at the same rate.

Scaling has not yet bought OpenAI the operating leverage that usually rewards a company this size, because the thing it sells, frontier-model inference, gets more expensive to deliver as more people use it.

The balance sheet looks, on its face, reassuring. OpenAI held more than $73bn in cash and marketable securities at the end of the quarter, up from $40bn at the end of December.

That jump reflects a large funding round announced at the end of March rather than money thrown off by the business, a distinction that matters when the quarterly burn is measured in billions. The cushion is real; it is also, in part, freshly raised.

That round was the one that closed at an $852bn valuation, a figure large enough that some of the company’s own investors have questioned it against the underlying revenue. The Q1 figures do not settle that argument so much as supply ammunition to both sides: the bulls point to the revenue curve, the bears to the burn beneath it.

OpenAI has also said it filed confidentially for a US initial public offering that could come as early as September and value the company at up to $1tn.

A flotation at that level would be among the largest in history, and it would put the kind of quarterly numbers reported this week in front of public-market investors who tend to ask harder questions about the path to profit than late-stage private backers do. The company has moved quickly on the filing as rivals race to list.

The pattern is not new for OpenAI, which has spent its way through every previous stage of its growth on the bet that scale eventually pays. The company has spoken about spending on the order of tens of billions in a single year on compute, research and infrastructure, and has indicated it does not expect to turn a profit until the end of the decade.

The Q1 burn fits that trajectory rather than departing from it. The novelty is the size of the numbers and the proximity of a public listing that will expose them to a different class of scrutiny.

None of the figures in the report came from OpenAI directly, and the company did not comment publicly on the specifics. What the numbers describe, if accurate, is a business operating at a scale and a loss that are both expanding in lockstep, ahead of a listing that will ask whether the second can ever stop chasing the first.

Samsung is turning a fictional gadget from the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day into a real-world experience.

The company has announced SpideyTracker.com, an interactive website inspired by a key feature from the new Marvel film.

In Brand New Day, Peter Parker’s friend Ned Leeds creates a website that helps New Yorkers track Spider-Man’s whereabouts in real time. Samsung has now recreated that idea for fans. Now, they can follow Spider-Man sightings and events leading up to the movie’s release.

The site features a pixel-art map and will track Spider-Man appearances at live events, creator collaborations and other promotional activities throughout the summer. Users can also sign up for notifications. This allows them to stay updated whenever a new sighting is reported.

Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, any opinions expressed below belong solely to the author.

The headlines will tell you that Singapore’s property market is finally cooling down. In early 2026, the HDB resale price index dipped by 0.1%, signalling a long-awaited breather for exhausted homebuyers.

But don’t pop the champagne just yet.

At the exact same time, million-dollar public housing transactions surged by over 17% quarter-on-quarter. In prime, mature estates, seven-figure price tags are no longer surprising—they are becoming the norm.

But it isn’t inflation, and it isn’t a failure of the public housing system. It is the system doing exactly what it was designed to do.

In fact, the slowdown in price appreciation may not be something to be happy about at all.

More than a home

Singaporeans complaining about rising prices are usually found among buyers, not sellers. And only those who are forced to purchase their homes in the resale market, rather than directly from the government, as BTOs come with significant discounts.

In reality, as long as you already own an apartment, then relative price movements don’t affect you too much, as the tide lifts all boats. You buy for more but you also sell for more.

However, from the very beginning of the HDB system, the government conceived it not only as a way to provide affordable homes to all Singaporeans but as an appreciating asset that adds to your pension when you retire.

The logic is very simple: you usually start a family in a larger apartment, fit for two adults with children, who then go on to buy their own when they grow up, making downsizing an attractive option for ageing parents.

As long as the apartment increases in value in line with or above general inflation, the difference you pocket from buying a smaller, cheaper flat can grow and supplement your retirement income—either directly or through a CPF top-up, which can also earn you an additional government grant.

Once we accept that prices should keep going up, then it’s only inevitable that they must reach the million-dollar mark at one point.

In fact, some are approaching S$2 million already, like the recent record-setter in Bukit Merah, sold for S$1.728 million with 92 years left on its lease. Expect to see more of those each year.

Apartments outpaced incomes by less than you think

Between 2015 and 2025, the Resale Price Index increased by about 50.7%. At the same time, the median household market income has gone up by 42.7%, against cumulative inflation of around 19 %.

So, yes, Singaporeans are paying relatively more for housing than a decade ago, but not by much, just 8%

Now, consider the opposite scenario: what if home prices had stayed level in the same conditions?

It would certainly be a boon for buyers of second-hand HDBs, but the elderly could lose close to 1/5th of their nest egg, eaten away by inflation. It wouldn’t be a reason to celebrate. On the contrary, it would suggest that the system has failed those it was supposed to help when they really needed it.

After all, new entrants still enjoy BTO benefits and make a substantial profit between the launch price and MOP. The elderly may, at most, receive a CPF grant of up to S$40,000, which wouldn’t cover their losses.

So, the ideal range within which resale HDB prices should fluctuate is above inflation but below salaries. It is where all Singaporeans benefit. Those still at work can afford bigger, better homes, while those in retirement can extract more value from theirs.

For the past 10 years, that range would fall between 20 and 42%—a bit below the 50.7% recorded. But even then, the number of million-dollar apartments reaching the market would still be high, and grow each year.

It’s inevitable.

And there’s no reason to complain, because one day, this relentless march upwards is going to benefit you too.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singapore’s current affairs here.

Featured Image Credit: bill.roque/ depositphotos

As simple of a concept flow batteries are, the used chemicals can still be somewhat problematic in the context of a school experiment. To this end [Markus Bindhammer] decided to implement a flow battery version that uses compounds from green tea for its electrolyte, based on a German research paper from 2016.

These organic flow batteries can use gallic acid, pyrogallol as well as the polyphenols in green tea, making them rather safe even in the hands of more careless students. The demonstrated flow battery uses a carbon electrode with activated carbon around it to increase surface area, a platinum wire electrode, and a graphite foil as as third electrode.

In the paper a silver electrode is also used, along with the additional electrodes, and a terracotta flower pot as the barrier between the carbon and graphite electrodes, with [Markus] further explaining that there are fortunately cheaper options than what he is using, especially with the flower pot instead of a special ceramic vessel.

The electrolyte solution has epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) dissolved in it, which here comes in the form of finely ground green tea powder (commonly known as matcha), which so happens to be pretty rich in this substance. In the below graphic by [Markus] you can see the complete set of solutions and other relevant details.

Of course, the performance of this type of flow cell isn’t amazing, with a cell voltage of less than a volt and a few mA of current, but it’s enough to spin a small fan, and to light up a few LEDs. This would be more than enough to demonstrate the reaction and flow cells in general, as long as you don’t mind donating some tasty matcha to science.

The Tour de Suisse 2026, the 89th edition of the race, will be five days long rather than the usual eight and in an innovative move to give the fans more chance to see the action each day, the stages will start and finish in the same town.

Heading the list of contenders is the GOAT himself Tadej Pogačar who will be racing for the first time since winning the Tour de Romandie at the end of April. Challenging for the overall will be Tom Pidcock, Primož Roglič and Richard Carapaz then of those looking for stage wins keep a close eye on Matthew Brennan and Mathieu van der Poel.

Cyber Essentials has always been the UK’s baseline cybersecurity standard.

It’s a practical floor designed to block common attacks and ensure business resilience when organizations implement them, rather than treating the scheme as lip service.