There’s talk of potentially using more Rust code within the GNOME desktop environment as opposed to C/Vala code…
Source: Phoronix – Should GNOME Begin Replacing More C Code With Rust?
Monthly Archives: October 2016
What's Actually Going On in the Two Seconds of a Formula 1 Pit Stop
Formula 1 pit stops are almost comically quick. The driver rolls in; a gang of crew workers buzz around; and then two seconds later, the race car shoots out to zip around the track again. But what’s actually going on? And what the hell are all those damn people doing? This video explains.
Source: Gizmodo – What’s Actually Going On in the Two Seconds of a Formula 1 Pit Stop
Over 10,000 Facebook Users Worldwide Falsely Check in at Standing Rock To Confuse Police
More than 100,000 people from around the world have checked in on Facebook at the site of Dakota Access Pipeline protests in North Dakota, in an effort they hope will help protesters avoid detection by police. From a report on Vice:A call went out for Facebook users over the weekend to falsely check in at Standing Rock to confuse the police regarding protester identities and numbers. But it isn’t clear whether the directive came from organizers on the ground at the Camp of the Sacred Stone, who call themselves Water Protectors because of the purported threat that the planned pipeline poses to Standing Rock’s water supply, or whether it’s a hoax. Protesters have been camped out at Standing Rock since April in response to the planned Energy Transfers Pipeline, but tensions reached a boiling point last week when protesters clashed with police and several vehicles were set on fire. Scenes of standoffs between riot police and protesters linked arm-in-arm were broadcast online via Facebook Live. Law enforcement used a sound cannon in an attempt to disperse protesters. Protest leaders in North Dakota say they were surprised by the Facebook check-in effort, but they appreciate it.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Over 10,000 Facebook Users Worldwide Falsely Check in at Standing Rock To Confuse Police
How to Disable Pocket's New Tab Page Display
Last week, Pocket updated with a new feature that added trending stories to Chrome’s new tab page. While neat in theory, the hijacking of a new tab is a bit annoying, and weirdly there was initially no way to disable it. Thankfully, now there is.
Source: LifeHacker – How to Disable Pocket’s New Tab Page Display
Fart Blamed for Causing a Fire During Surgery at a Tokyo Hospital
This surgery sounds like a total nightmare. According to a new Tokyo Medical University Hospital report, a patient’s fart during surgery apparently caused a fire that led to serious burns on her body.
Source: Gizmodo – Fart Blamed for Causing a Fire During Surgery at a Tokyo Hospital
Westworld's Sex and Violence-Filled Attempt to Outdo Game of Thrones Hid a Really Important Detail
Westworld has taken great pains in previous episodes to put the viewer and its guests in the same position, and more specifically to shame anyone who’s more interested in the action and sex scenes than the philosophical questions it’s asking. This week, again, there was violence and sex all over the place. And, once again, it’s not at all the important part.
Source: Gizmodo – Westworld’s Sex and Violence-Filled Attempt to Outdo Game of Thrones Hid a Really Important Detail
Google gets better at spotting bogus Play Store app installs
It’d bad enough when you download a crummy Android app, but it’s worse when you’re tricked into installing that app thanks to fake installs and other tricks that make it seem more popular than it is. Google wants to fix that: it’s deploying upgraded…
Source: Engadget – Google gets better at spotting bogus Play Store app installs
These Bionic Plants Can Detect Deadly Land Mines
Popeye was right when it came to the health benefits of spinach, but that simple sailor man couldn’t have predicted this unorthodox use of the superfood. Researchers at MIT have found a way to use spinach to detect explosive materials in soil, potentially making the plant a safe way to detect landmines.
Source: io9 – These Bionic Plants Can Detect Deadly Land Mines
Researchers Made Bionic Spinach Plants That Can Help Detect Deadly Land Mines
Popeye was right when it came to the health benefits of spinach, but that simple sailor man couldn’t have predicted this unorthodox use of the superfood. Researchers at MIT have found a way to use spinach to detect explosive materials in soil, potentially making the plant a safe way to detect landmines.
Source: Gizmodo – Researchers Made Bionic Spinach Plants That Can Help Detect Deadly Land Mines
There’s no way your Facebook “check in” is confusing North Dakota cops
Enlarge (credit: Robyn Beck / Getty Images News)
On Monday, supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline began a viral campaign enticing people to “check in” to the reservation on Facebook as a way to “overwhelm and confuse” local law enforcement.
However, there is no evidence that this tactic is effective, particularly when the Morton County Sheriff’s Department expressly said on its own Facebook page that it “is not and does not follow Facebook check-ins for the protest camp or any location. This claim / rumor is absolutely false.”
In recent months, activists have been protesting at the site on the border of North and South Dakota in an attempt to halt a planned oil pipeline that many believe would damage the local water supply and desecrate tribal lands.
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Source: Ars Technica – There’s no way your Facebook “check in” is confusing North Dakota cops
Damn Rich People: A Glass Table That Looks Like It Has Burning Money Inside
This is the table built by Alejandro Monge in collaboration with Amarist Studio. It looks like there’s a pile of burning 50€ notes inside. They’re not real though, the pile of bills is actually made from sculpting resins, paint, and paper. I wonder what the artist’s message is. I hope it’s about rich people. Of course a real rich person would have a table that burns actual money. This is a table for a miserly rich person like Scrooge McDuck. Not to brag or anything, but I lit a cigar with a burning $100 before. “No, you didn’t.” Okay, okay, it was a $1. “Still don’t believe you.” Fine, it was a quarter I heated up on the stove, are you happy now? “A quarter?” Nickel, whatever!
Keep going for several more shots.
Source: Geekologie – Damn Rich People: A Glass Table That Looks Like It Has Burning Money Inside
AT&T falsely claimed pro-Google Fiber rule is invalid, FCC says
(credit: Mike Mozart)
The Federal Communications Commission has given a helping hand to Louisville, Kentucky, in the city’s attempt to enforce local rules that would make it easier for Google Fiber to compete against AT&T.
AT&T sued the local government in Louisville and Jefferson County in February to stop a One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) ordinance designed to give Google Fiber or other new competitors faster access to utility poles. Today, the US government submitted a statement of interest (full text) on behalf of the FCC, which says that one of AT&T’s primary legal arguments is incorrect.
AT&T—also known as BellSouth Telecommunications in Kentucky—argued that the Louisville ordinance is preempted by the FCC’s pole-attachment rules. The local ordinance “conflicts with the procedures created by the FCC, and upsets the careful balances struck by the FCC in crafting its pole attachment regulations,” AT&T’s lawsuit said.
Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – AT&T falsely claimed pro-Google Fiber rule is invalid, FCC says
The Most Nightmarish Peanuts Special Ever Made
The first time I watched the 1978 Peanuts special What A Nightmare, Charlie Brown, I was eight and a little scared. The cartoon made a significant impression on me. It was unnerving to see Snoopy whipped, starved, pelted with produce, and drowned. Dream sequence or not, that’s heavy shit.
Source: Kotaku – The Most Nightmarish Peanuts Special Ever Made
Bracing for Impact Really Does Help Keep You Safe in a Crash
In the tragic event that you’re involved in a plane crash, following the instructions about bracing for impact really could help minimize your injuries. The main advantage is in keeping your head close to the seat in front of you, preventing your head and torso from swinging forward in a whiplash like effect.
Source: LifeHacker – Bracing for Impact Really Does Help Keep You Safe in a Crash
Recent pattern of cloud cover may have masked some global warming
There’s a deceptively simple number at the heart of the science of climate change: the sensitivity of Earth’s climate system to an addition of greenhouse gas like CO2. This variable gets defined in technical terms on several different timescales, but it all boils down to how much global warming we’ll get if we increase CO2 by a given amount.
All kinds of complex interactions are contained within this number, including all the feedback loops that amplify or dampen the warming response. One of the harder feedbacks to pin down has been changes in clouds. As the world warms, more water vapor ends up in the atmosphere—and water vapor is an important greenhouse gas. But the bright, low clouds that water vapor can form reflect sunlight, shading and cooling the Earth.
It turns out the net result of increased water vapor enhances warming rather than limiting it. A new study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Chen Zhou, Mark Zelinka, and Stephen Klein reveals an interesting interaction that makes this even more complicated. It’s not enough to figure out what clouds will do in general—there’s not some single number that you can get to stand in for clouds. Instead, there are spatial patterns to clouds’ effects, and they vary over time. This has some pretty interesting implications for understanding the last few decades and what’s coming in the future.
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Source: Ars Technica – Recent pattern of cloud cover may have masked some global warming
The Next President Will Face a Cybercrisis Within 100 Days, Predicts Report
The next president of the United States will face a cybercrisis within 100 days, predicts report from analysts at Forrester. The crisis could come as a result of hostile actions from another country or internal conflict over privacy and security legislation, said Forrester analyst Amy DeMartine, lead author of the firm’s top cybersecurity risks for 2017 report, due to be made public Tuesday. From a report on CNBC:History grades a president’s first 100 days as the mark of how their four-year term will unfold, so those early days are particularly precarious, said DeMartine. The new commander in chief will face pressure from foreign entities looking to embarrass them early on, just as U.S. government agencies jockey for position within the new administration, she said. Cyberwarfare between Russia and the U.S. will escalate, and the U.S. government will respond in 2017, said DeMartine. […] Chinese government hacking will continue in 2017, despite a joint agreement not to conduct cybertheft of intellectual property. The massive U.S. Office of Personnel Management breach, which exposed the records of millions of U.S government workers, has strained diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China, since the U.S. believes Chinese spies carried out the attack. Countries like North Korea and Iran have been building capabilities for offensive purposes and will likely try to hack public and private databases, said DeMartine.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – The Next President Will Face a Cybercrisis Within 100 Days, Predicts Report
Microsoft Flow and PowerApps get a public launch November 1st
Source: Engadget – Microsoft Flow and PowerApps get a public launch November 1st
Where Netflix Sees Potential And Risks
As odd as it may seem, listening to Reed Hastings explain how his company greenlights a show in terms of joy, made absolute perfect sense in a joy-joy kind of way.
MR. BERMAN: Take us through the economics of greenlighting a show.
MR. HASTINGS: We’ll collect this year about $8 billion of customers’ money. We say that money’s in trust to create joy. We have to turn that into the most joy possible. We look and we say, for every show, if a show cost $100 million, how much joy, how much viewing did it create? If it costs $50 million or $200 million, of course you want different amounts of joy. So we look at it as how much joy can we create of your money. And if we turn it into joy effectively, then you’re happy and you tell your friends and we grow.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – Where Netflix Sees Potential And Risks
DOOM: Hell Followed DLC Now Available
For those of you that haven’t seen the announcement yet (it kind of went under the radar), Bethesda announced that the new DOOM: Hell Followed DLC is now available. I’ve embedded the announcement video below.
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Source: [H]ardOCP – DOOM: Hell Followed DLC Now Available
Darth Vader Dresses As Koch Brother For Halloween
Today is Halloween, which is great for neighborhood kids and bad for those of us on the internet. The Twitter account for the Koch Industries started things off with a bang, sending out a tweet that featured a photo of the first rider of the apocalypse, Charles Koch, in costume as Darth Vader.
Source: Gizmodo – Darth Vader Dresses As Koch Brother For Halloween