tl;dr: they successfully reached orbit, but failed to land

Europe faces a critical dependency on US cloud infrastructure, with 90% of its digital infrastructure controlled by American companies, according to competition expert Cristina Caffarra[^1]. This vulnerability has spurred concrete action, with public institutions in Austria, Germany, France and the International Criminal Court moving away from US providers. The core issue stems from the US CLOUD Act of 2018, which allows American authorities to access data held by US companies regardless of location, conflicting directly with EU privacy laws[^1]. This creates an "irreconcilable legal conflict" since any contract between European customers and US cloud providers is subordinate to US federal law. Several key developments highlight this shift: - Austria's Federal Ministry for Economy completed migration of 1,200 employees to European open-source platform Nextcloud[^1] - The International Criminal Court is replacing Microsoft office software with OpenDesk after its chief prosecutor was locked out of Outlook[^1] - Germany's Schleswig-Holstein state has moved 24,000 civil servants to open-source alternatives[^1] However, challenges remain. The acquisition of Dutch cloud provider Solvinity by US-based Kyndryl demonstrates how European alternatives can be undermined through foreign acquisition[^1]. Critics also warn about "sovereignty washing," where US hyperscalers market 'sovereign cloud' solutions that don't resolve the fundamental legal conflicts[^1]. [^1]: [The Register - Europe gets serious about cutting digital umbilical cord](https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/22/europe_gets_serious_about_cutting/)

Here's the corresponding youtube video by Benn Jordan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-uiUlHTo

A tape-based piece of unique Unix history may have been lying quietly in storage at the University of Utah for 50+ years. The question is whether researchers will be able to take this piece of middle-aged media and rewind it back to the 1970s to get the data off. See also https://archive.org/details/utah_unix_v4_raw TAR file http://squoze.net/UNIX/v4/

https://www.modelscope.cn/models/Qwen/Qwen-Image-Edit-2511 https://huggingface.co/lightx2v/Qwen-Image-Edit-2511-Lightning https://huggingface.co/unsloth/Qwen-Image-Edit-2511-GGUF

https://archive.vn/VJhKr

https://archive.ph/2025.12.17-154356/https://www.reuters.com/world/china/how-china-built-its-manhattan-project-rival-west-ai-chips-2025-12-17/

https://archive.is/vPzSf

**PE-AV - Audiovisual Perception with Code** * Meta's perception encoder for audio-visual understanding with open code release. * Processes both visual and audio information to isolate sound sources. * [Paper](https://go.meta.me/e541b6) | [Code](https://go.meta.me/7fbef0) https://preview.redd.it/k6lp7cgbou8g1.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=f928bbd8d184e9094e7130cb36adff5f51830a80 **T5Gemma 2 - Open Encoder-Decoder** * Next generation encoder-decoder model with full open-source weights. * Combines bidirectional understanding with flexible text generation. * [Blog](https://blog.google/technology/developers/t5gemma-2/) | [Mode](https://huggingface.co/google/t5gemma-2-270m-270m)l **Qwen-Image-Layered - Open Image Decomposition** * Decomposes images into editable RGBA layers with full model release. * Each layer can be independently manipulated for precise editing. * [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/QwenLM/Qwen-Image-Layered) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16776) | [Demo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/Qwen/Qwen-Image-Layered-Demo) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/72skjufkou8g1/player **N3D-VLM - Open 3D Vision-Language Model** * Native 3D spatial reasoning with open weights and code. * Understands depth and spatial relationships without 2D distortions. * [GitHub](https://github.com/W-Ted/N3D-VLM) | [Model](https://huggingface.co/yuxinhk/N3D-VLM) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/h1npuq1mou8g1/player **Generative Refocusing - Open Depth Control** * Controls depth of field in images with full code release. * Simulates camera focus changes through 3D scene inference. * [Website](https://generative-refocusing.github.io/) | [Demo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/nycu-cplab/Genfocus-Demo) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16923) | [GitHub](https://github.com/rayray9999/Genfocus) **StereoPilot - Open 2D to 3D Conversion** * Converts 2D videos to stereo 3D with open model and code. * Full source release for VR content creation. * [Website](https://hit-perfect.github.io/StereoPilot/) | [Model](https://huggingface.co/KlingTeam/StereoPilot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/KlingTeam/StereoPilot) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16915) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/homrv9tmou8g1/player **Chatterbox Turbo - MIT Licensed TTS** * State-of-the-art text-to-speech under permissive MIT license. * No commercial restrictions or cloud dependencies. * [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/p1/Chatterbox-Turbo) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/iceqr03jou8g1/player **FunctionGemma - Open Function Calling** * Lightweight 270M parameter model for function calling with full weights. * Creates specialized function calling models without commercial restrictions. * [Model](https://huggingface.co/google/functiongemma-270m-it) **FoundationMotion - Open Motion Analysis** * Labels spatial movement in videos with full code and dataset release. * Automatic motion pattern identification without manual annotation. * [Paper](http://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10927) | [GitHub](https://github.com/Wolfv0/FoundationMotion/tree/main) | [Demo](https://huggingface.co/spaces/yulu2/FoundationMotion) | [Dataset](https://huggingface.co/datasets/WoWolf/v2-dev/tree/main) **DeContext - Open Image Protection** * Protects images from unwanted AI edits with open-source implementation. * Adds imperceptible perturbations that block manipulation while preserving quality. * [Website](https://linghuiishen.github.io/decontext_project_page/) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16625) | [GitHub](https://github.com/LinghuiiShen/DeContext) **EgoX - Open Perspective Transformation** * Transforms third-person videos to first-person with full code release. * Maintains spatial coherence during viewpoint conversion. * [Website](https://keh0t0.github.io/EgoX/) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08269) | [GitHub](https://github.com/DAVIAN-Robotics/EgoX) https://reddit.com/link/1ptg2x9/video/2h8x59qpou8g1/player **Step-GUI - Open GUI Automation** * SOTA GUI automation with self-evolving pipeline and open weights. * Full code and model release for interface control. * [Paper](https://huggingface.co/papers/2512.15431) | [GitHub](https://github.com/stepfun-ai/gelab-zero) | [Model](https://huggingface.co/stepfun-ai/GELab-Zero-4B-preview) **IC-Effect - Open Video Effects** * Applies video effects through in-context learning with code release. * Learns effect patterns from examples without fine-tuning. * [Website](https://cuc-mipg.github.io/IC-Effect/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/CUC-MIPG/IC-Effect) | [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15635)

I have an old QNAP and I hate it. It's full of proprietary software that can't be removed, and is *slow*, probably because it doesn't have SSDs. It's, I think, RAID1. Basically just need something to back up my data on my local network that has encryption. Open source is always nice as well. Simple and fast!