The macOS Sonoma and macOS Ventura 13.6 upgrades have released with several serious bugs, causing machines to always boot to a black screen. This issue occurs when certain settings are enabled on certain models. Even dual-boot installations of macOS Sonoma and Asahi Linux are affected. The Asahi Linux installer has been updated to perform an integrity check and diagnose system issues on startup. Users are recommended to wait for Apple to fix these problems before upgrading. If already on macOS Sonoma, it is safe to install Asahi Linux as long as the display refresh rate is set to ProMotion. If affected by the black screen boot bug, users can attempt regular recoveryOS boot or boot into System RecoveryOS. If these steps fail, users will need to resort to DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode, which requires another Mac and the installation of Apple Configurator. Additionally, users can visit an Apple Store for a DFU Revive, which should be performed free of charge. Users on macOS Ventura 13.6 can only resolve the issue by upgrading to macOS Sonoma.

SQLite 3.44 is coming soon and has some exciting features to showcase. One notable feature is that aggregate functions now accept an optional "after" parameter, allowing users to define the order in which the function processes its arguments. This can be useful when grouping and displaying employees in departments, as it enables concatenation in straight or reverse alphabetical order. Another improvement is the introduction of scalar string functions, which allow joining non-null arguments either with or without a separator. Additionally, the strftime function now supports more formatting verbs, including ones for ISO 8601 date and time formats. There are also query planner optimizations for partial index scans and several other enhancements. The release notes provide more details on these updates. Overall, SQLite 3.44 brings several useful features and improvements for developers to leverage in their projects.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a stunning image of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51. Unlike other spiral galaxies with ragged or disrupted spiral arms, grand-design spiral galaxies have well-developed, prominent spiral arms. This image is a composite made using data from JWST's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). The image reveals the warm dust permeating the galaxy, with red regions indicating reprocessed light from complex molecules forming on dust grains, and orange and yellow regions representing ionized gas by recently formed star clusters. M51, also known as NGC 5194, is located about 27 million light-years away from Earth and is in an interacting relationship with its neighbor, the dwarf galaxy NGC 5195. The gravitational influence of NGC 5195 is believed to play a role in shaping M51's distinct spiral arms. This observation of M51 is part of a series of observations called Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers (FEAST), which aims to study stellar feedback and star formation in galaxies outside of our Milky Way.

rattleCAD is a CAD software specifically designed for bicycle design. It was initially released as a free and open-source software, but since the release of version 4.0, it has become proprietary. As a result, all the old source and binary files have been removed from its page on SourceForge, and a new official site has been launched. This has led to the creation of a backup page on the Internet Archive, which intends to store some source and binary releases of rattleCAD. This includes free and demo versions of rattleCAD 4.x for Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and cross-platform Starkit packages. The page also encourages users who have source or binary files of rattleCAD versions not listed on the page to add a review with a download link to their files, so they can be included in the collection on the backup page.

OpenRW is an open-source game engine that aims to recreate the engine used in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto III. The project's main objective is to ensure compatibility with modern systems and enable the game to be played in the future. The ultimate goal is to reach "Version 1.0," which would involve fully implementing the original gameplay, compatibility with all game data formats, and modern gamepad support. The engine would also be able to load save game files, run mods that only change game data, and work on Windows, Linux, and macOS. However, OpenRW does not aim to recreate bugs or introduce changes to gameplay or multiplayer features. The project currently requires players to own the original game and its data. While OpenRW is still in development and has bugs to be fixed, it serves as a conservation effort to make the game playable on modern systems. The development of OpenRW is open to contributions, and the engine is released under the GNU General Public License Version 3. The project may also support other games in the future, such as Vice City.