The Ladybird web browser can now handle Google Sheets.

 

Watching as Ladybird rapidly gains support for increasingly complex websites (and web “apps”) is a truly marvelous thing.

As the lead developer of Ladybird says, it’s not perfect. But increasingly usable.

I mean, heck. Look at that. That’s Google Sheets. Running in a web browser that is not based on Firefox or Chrome.

 

The real question, for many of us, is “how long until we can use Ladybird as our daily web browser?”

According to the team, “Summer of 2026” is their target for the first official “Alpha” release. And my guess is… they’re probably about right. But, based on the rapid progress, I’d say it’s also reasonable to assume that super-duper-early adopters can probably start daily test driving Ladybird a bit sooner than that.

It seems like we are seeing significant new functionality, and site support, almost every day. Here’s Cal.com running in Ladybird.

 

And here one of the developers is showing off gamepad support. Which. Awesome.

 

Let this be your regular reminder: Anybody who is telling you “you can’t build [insert project here], it’s too hard and requires a massive team”… is full of doggy doo-doo.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced that the United Stated federal government had acquired a 10% stake in Intel — making the USA the single largest shareholder.

Which raises a question: Considering the fact that Intel has implemented a secret operating system within their CPUs — a system which has total control and visibility of everything a computer does, and which computer users are not allowed access to — what are the implications of Intel now being owned, in large part, by a government?

How The Intel Deal Happened

On August 22nd, President Trump made a Truth Social post which read, “It is my Great Honor to report that the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL.”

 

What’s especially fascinating is that, according to the President, “The United States paid nothing for these shares” worth approximately $11 Billion USD.

How, exactly did this all come to pass?

Well, the current CEO of Intel — a man named Lip-Bu Tan — is also the Chairman of an investment firm called Walden International. A position he continued to hold after becoming the new head of Intel.

Back on July 18th, the US Congress Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote a letter expressing concern regarding Walden International’s investments in Chinese Communist Party tied corporations.

 

But Intel CEO’s ties to China didn’t end there.

Lip-Bu Tan was also, previously, the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, which plead guilty to illegally selling chip design software and hardware to the Chinese Military.

 

President Trump chimed in, on August 7th, stating that “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.”

 

Lip-Bu Tan sent out a letter to Intel employees, later that same day, addressing some of this — calling it “misinformation”, without providing any specifics or detailed rebuttals. He also referred to his leadership of “Walden” as a “past role”, even though his ties to Walden appear to remain.

4 days later, on August 11th, the Intel CEO met, in person, with President Trump. According to President Trump, during the meeting Trump suggested that Intel should “give” the US government 10% of Intel. And the Intel CEO replied that he would think about it.

On August 22nd, the deal was announced that it had been finalized.

Now there are, obviously, going to be many opinions about this. I have more than a few, myself. Let’s put aside some of the more political and financial concerns, for a moment, and focus in on a security & privacy issue.

The Intel Management Engine Issue

Almost every major Intel CPU, produced since 2008, ships with something called the “Intel Management Engine” (or “IME”, for short).

The IME is, to put it simply, a hidden computer inside your CPU. A hidden computer which has access to everything on your computer (absolutely everything) — but which you are not allowed any access to yourself.

A hidden computer… which even has a full web server.

Now, ask yourself, why would a secret computer — hidden inside your computer, spying on everything you do — need a web server? The answer is not a comforting one.

The IME is one of the most powerful, non-auditable, and widespread backdoors ever created. And it is in just about every Intel-powered computer on Earth. Even Google is concerned about the IME — going to drastic measures to disable it on their servers whenever possible.

And now the US federal government is the single largest shareholder of Intel.

The way I see it, the results of government ownership of Intel could impact the Intel Management Engine in one of two ways:

• The Good: The government could provide oversight into potential, or already existing, abuses of the IME which may be impacting the security and privacy of US citizens, government agencies, and corporations. The government could even force Intel to remove the IME entirely. A massive win for computer security and privacy.

• The Bad: The government could take advantage (or further advantage) of the IME for their own purposes. Possibly even expanding the IME’s already extensive surveillance capabilities.

Now, I don’t know about you, but my gut tells me the bad option is far more likely than the good one.

Even if that is not the intention of President Trump in making this deal… Someone, somewhere within the federal government is already planning ways which the IME can be used (or used further), in ways which we, as citizens, will not like.

But, and this is important, the US government is not the only organization with control over Intel.

The Other Big Players

While this 10% stake makes the USA the single largest shareholder of Intel, both Blackrock and Vanguard come in at a close second (both with close to 9% of the shares).

 

In fact, the top 4 shareholders of Intel now have a combined ownership of roughly 1/3rd of the entire company — that’s a lot of control.

Plus, most of those investment firms holding significant portions of several other computer companies. BlackRock, for example, also owns massive, influential stakes in Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, and Google.

 

The control which these firms can wield over the computer industry is absolutely staggering.

Now that the US federal government is an even larger shareholder — at least with Intel — it will be interesting to see what impact that has on both the existing investment firms… and the actions of the corporations themselves.

Another week, another round of absolutely insane stories within the Tech Industry. The “USA becomes the majority shareholder of Intel” and “Microsoft Intifada” stories really jump out at me as the most wild of the week.

But, shoot, the “UK says Email causes drought” story was pretty nuts too. They’re all below.

And next week is already shaping up to be even crazier. We’re expecting the final ruling in the remedy phase of “USA v. Google” next week. Plus a few other stories that have been percolating.

I do believe a statement of “Buckle up, Buttercup” is in order.

USA Owns 10% of Intel

This story broke at the very end of the week and, I tell ya, I did not have “US Government is given 10% of Intel stock, making it the largest shareholder, without even paying for it” on my 2025 Bingo card.

Crazy. With some potentially wild consequences. This story requires a lot more digging. I’m checking in with a few Intel sources to get the inside scoop.

The Microsoft “Intifada”

This one really hits deep into the non-Tech political news. But it is all about Microsoft and Microsoft employees — with a potential boil over to other parts of the Tech industry — so it definitely deserves to be covered here.

A group of Microsoft employees have declared themselves the “Microsoft Worker Intifada” and are vowing to make life hard for Microsoft, with escalating events, until Microsoft cuts all ties with Israel.

Their first event, on Tuesday, was a bit of a dud (Article, Podcast & Video). They occupied a Microsoft Main Campus plaza, made a bit of a mess, then quickly folded at the first sign that they might face arrest.

But their second event, on Wednesday (at the same location on Microsoft campus), turned very ugly (Article). 18 arrests. Massive vandalism. Fake blood (red paint) and fake dead bodies. They ransacked a farmers market to steal material to build a barricade, got rowdy, and made a point of shouting anti-Jewish slurs at people walking by.

And their third event, on Thursday, went even further with the anti-Jewish stuff (Article). Posters celebrating the murder and disemboweling of Jews. Repeated chants, in Arabic, of “Go away, Jews!”. This wasn’t an event protesting political policies of a country. This was a wide-ranging event focused on attacking and opposing anything “Jewish” — including Jewish Microsoft employees. No arrests at the third event.

It remains to be seen what actions Microsoft will take regarding all of this. Obviously, I’ve asked. But radio silence from them.

Other Stories This Week

There were some other pretty insane stories this week.

• Article: MS Office for PowerPC Windows NT Found!

• Podcast & Video: MS Office for PowerPC Windows NT Found!

• Article: UK: WiFi Causes Climate Change, & Email Causes Drought

• Podcast & Video: UK: WiFi Causes Climate Change, & Email Causes Drought

• Article: Funny Programming Pictures Part LXIX

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-Lunduke