To evolve Fuchsia beyond smart home devices, Google has been working on projects such as Starnix to run unmodified Linux binaries on Fuchsia devices. In addition, since late April of this year, Google has been working on a new project called “microfuchsia” that aims to make Fuchsia bootable on existing devices via virtualization. Microfuchsia, according to Google, is a Fuchsia OS build that targets virtual machines and is designed to be bootable in virtualization solutions such as QEMU and pKVM.

↫ Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority

The goal here might be, according to Mishaal Rahman, might be to use this new microfuchsia thing to replace the stripped-down Android version that’s currently being used inside Android’s pKVM to run certain secured workloads. Relevant patches have been submitted to both the Fuchsia and Android side of things for this very purpose.

At this point, it really seems that Google’s grand ambitions with Fuchsia simply didn’t survive the massive employee culling, with leadership probably reasoning that Android and Chrome OS are good enough, and that replacing them with something homegrown and possibly more suited – speculation, of course – simply isn’t worth the investment in both time and money.

It probably makes sense from a financial standpoint, but it’s still sad.

MattSparkes writes: Secret international discussions have resulted in governments across the world imposing identical export controls on quantum computers, while refusing to disclose the scientific rationale behind the regulations. Although quantum computers theoretically have the potential to threaten national security by breaking encryption techniques, even the most advanced quantum computers currently in public existence are too small and too error-prone to achieve this, rendering the bans seemingly pointless. The UK is one of the countries that has prohibited the export of quantum computers with 34 or more quantum bits, or qubits, and error rates below a certain threshold. The intention seems to be to restrict machines of a certain capability, but the UK government hasn't explicitly said this. A New Scientist freedom of information request for a rationale behind these numbers was turned down on the grounds of national security. France has also introduced export controls with the same specifications on qubit numbers and error rates, as has Spain and the Netherlands. Identical limits across European states might point to a European Union regulation, but that isn't the case. A European Commission spokesperson told New Scientist that EU members are free to adopt national measures, rather than bloc-wide ones, for export restrictions. New Scientist reached out to dozens of nations to ask what the scientific basis for these matching legislative bans on quantum computer exports was, but was told it was kept secret to protect national security.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the earliest hobbyist-friendly on-demand 3D printing and fabrication shops, Shapeways, is filing for bankruptcy. As these financial arrangements always go, this may or may not mean the end of the service, but it’s a sure sign that their business wasn’t running as well as you’d hope.

One of the standout features of Shapeways was always that they made metal printing affordable to the home gamer. Whether it was something frivolous like a custom gear-shifter knob, or something all-too functional like a prototype rocket engine, it was neat to have the alternative workflow of iterative design at home and then shipping out for manufacturing.

We don’t want to speculate too much, but we’d be surprised if the rise of similar services in China wasn’t part of the reason for the bankruptcy. The market landscape just isn’t what it was way back in 2013. (Sadly, the video linked in this article isn’t around any more. If anyone can find a copy, post up in the comments?) So while Shapeways may or may not be gone, it’s not like we can’t get metal parts made anymore.

Still, we’re spilling a little for the OG.

Thanks [Aaron Eiche] for the breaking news tip!

Last week, we reported that Elon Musk has 11 children, which seemed like a lot at the time. Unfortunately, that number appears to be incorrect. In fact, he has yet another previously unreported kid, according to a report published Friday by Bloomberg. The total number of kids (that we know of) now appears to be 12.

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