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"Software is over": Developer uses AI to build free Adobe clones after frustration with cancellation fees
TechSpot, 2026/10/08

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I tried the Lightcraft application on ArtCraft - it's an attempt to recreate Lightroom. It was unable to import my RAW .NEF files from my camera, so it allowed me to edit the included .JPG instead. But that's not really a substitute. I notice as well that performance is similar to other non-Adobe editing apps, such as Affinity. So there's a way to go. Still. It's hard to disagree with the headline that "software is over". Tom's Hardware has a good overview of the project. "Excited testers say this could be a legitimate Adobe alternative, but others claim it may just be more vibecoded AI slop. It remains to be seen how many will collaborate to improve upon this project and fill in the missing features that it plans to replicate." It might take more than a month. Maybe even a year.

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ActivityPods - Personal data spaces powered with ActivityPub
ActivityPods, 2026/10/08

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The work I've done on CList is about creating social interacting learning networks based on personal data spaces and environments, so there's a lot of overlap with ActivityPods, which "Brings together ActivityPub and Solid Pods and empowers developers to create truly decentralized applications." As described here, "all your data are stored in your Pod. You can choose a Pod provider you trust, or host it yourself....  you can share your data with anyone on the Internet, thanks to the ActivityPub protocol." And "since all data are stored using semantic web standards, they can be accessed and understood by many apps." Really interesting. I think one of the big difference between CList and this sort of project is that while you can store or host data yourself, you don't have to. Anyhow, here is the ActivityPod documentation.

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What happens to the Gemini Gems you assigned in Google Classroom
Sohan Choudhury, Flint, 2026/10/08

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Google's Gems are "customized versions of Gemini that help you tackle repetitive tasks or get deep expertise in new areas." They were used by teachers in Google Classroom. But now, as this article reports, Google is retiring Gems and replacing them with skills. But skills won't be available in Classroom. So "what happens to Gems you assigned to students, the key dates, and what to move them to." Similarly, "OpenAI retires custom GPTs on December 11, 2026" - there's an article on what teachers were building with them." Once again, we are learning the danger of relying on a proprietary platform. Now this article promotes something called Flint as an alternative; I can't vouch for them, but at least they posted this useful article.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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