We can feed landfills. Or we can feed people. Let’s choose sides.
Source: TreeHugger – UK government launches £500,000 fund to repurpose food waste
Monthly Archives: December 2017
It's Time to Eliminate Your Facebook News Feed
Ah 2017, the year fake news took over our timelines, and the attendant hand-wringing took over our lives. It’s not as if we needed more things to disturb us on Facebook—we’ve been FOMO-gnashing our teeth to dust for a decade, after all. As this year comes to a close, I encourage you to gird yourself for the certain…
Source: LifeHacker – It’s Time to Eliminate Your Facebook News Feed
A Closer Look At The AMDVLK vs. RADV vs. AMDGPU-PRO Vulkan Performance
Back on Christmas Eve I posted our initial AMDVLK Radeon Linux driver benchmarks for this newly open-sourced official Radeon Vulkan driver. Complementing those earlier Vulkan Linux gaming numbers are some more performance metrics for AMDVLK compared to the Mesa-based RADV driver and then the closed-source AMDGPU-PRO Vulkan driver.
Source: Phoronix – A Closer Look At The AMDVLK vs. RADV vs. AMDGPU-PRO Vulkan Performance
How to delete PS4 4.07 update file help?
Somehow my console downloaded 4.07 update even though I disabled “Download updates automatically”
Now every time I start my console it asks for update, and If I accidentally click on “Update” I’m done-no jailbreak chance for me.
If I do…
How to delete PS4 4.07 update file help?
Source: PS4 News – How to delete PS4 4.07 update file help?
Hurricane-swept manatee lost at sea finds kindness in The Bahamas
Far from home and critically ill, the wayward manatee was rescued and rehabbed and is almost ready to return to the sea.
Source: TreeHugger – Hurricane-swept manatee lost at sea finds kindness in The Bahamas
Some Sonos and Bose speakers are being remotely hijacked
If you have a Sonos or Bose product connected to your home Wi-Fi system and you’ve been hearing some strange sounds out of it, the good news is that your speaker isn’t haunted. The bad news is that it’s possible someone has remotely gained access to…
Source: Engadget – Some Sonos and Bose speakers are being remotely hijacked
Smart Thinking: Taiwan Gaming Center Puts Bikini-Clad Ladies In Its Claw Machines To Attract Customers
Quick — win her phone!
This is an entirely too long video (or not long enough depending on what your fetishes are) of the bikini-clad ladies that a new gaming center in Taiwan put in their claw machines to attract people (predominately creepers) to play. I don’t think it’s a permanent thing though, I think it was more of a grand opening thing. But did that stop me from trying to stuff a fiver into my laptop’s CD-ROM drive to play? “I’m guessing not.” All my singles either.
Keep going for the video while I complain to management those girls are taking up way too much valuable prize space in the machines. I’m here to win Pokemon plushies, not get an eye-full.
Source: Geekologie – Smart Thinking: Taiwan Gaming Center Puts Bikini-Clad Ladies In Its Claw Machines To Attract Customers
The Best and Worst Moments in the Comics of 2017
You couldn’t swing a dead cat this year and not end up hitting a fantastic new comic. This is a good thing! (Unless you’re a dead cat.) At the same time, though, 2017 wasn’t without its moments of comics chicanery and utter wackness. Now’s as good a time as any to look back and reflect on what sort of year comics had…
Source: Gizmodo – The Best and Worst Moments in the Comics of 2017
The Basics of the GOP Tax Plan, Explained
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful Christmas present” to the American people came Dec. 22, when he signed into law a tax plan that will benefit business owners big and small and give individual taxpayers a slight break in 2018.
Source: LifeHacker – The Basics of the GOP Tax Plan, Explained
Nintendo is delaying the Switch's 64GB game cards
To get around the Switch’s current 32GB limit on game cards, Bethesda spilt Doom into two parts. The campaign is what shipped on the game card, and multiplayer was a separate download. It sounds like that might be the norm for a bit longer. The Wall…
Source: Engadget – Nintendo is delaying the Switch’s 64GB game cards
Piracy Notices Can Mess With Your Thermostat, ISP Warns
U.S. Internet provider Armstrong has warned persistent pirates on its network of limiting their access to the thermostats if they didn’t play by its rules. From a report: Our attention was caught by a recent letter the company sent to one of its users. The ISP points out that it received multiple copyright infringement notices, urging the customer to stop, or else. […] While reduced Internet speeds are bad enough, there’s another scary prospect. The reduced service level may also prevent subscribers from controlling their thermostat remotely. Not ideal during the winter. “Please be advised that this may affect other services which you may have connected to your internet service, such as the ability to control your thermostat remotely or video monitoring services.” Accused pirates who want their full service restored, and regain control over their thermostats, have to answer some copyright questions and read an educational piece about copyright infringement.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Piracy Notices Can Mess With Your Thermostat, ISP Warns
Play Carcassone, Lost Cities, and More Eurogames for Free Online
Six days left in your vacation and you’re running out of Lifehacker posts to read. The only games at your parents’ house are Sorry and Monopoly. Try Eurogames, the European style of tabletop game that isn’t so competitive or chance-driven. The site Happy Meeple replicates the board and card games Finito, Hanamikoji,…
Source: LifeHacker – Play Carcassone, Lost Cities, and More Eurogames for Free Online
Alexa Skill Development Makes Good Money for Some
Everyone knows Alexa has skills, but what many don’t know is a large number of those skills are developed by independent developers (WARNING auto play video) and marketing companies. The market for skills has grown from $500K two years ago, to an estimated $50M in 2018. This is nowhere near what mobile apps are worth, but this is a new market and it has nothing but upside in its future. If you have your own coding skills this might be a growth area for you to engage with. Good luck!
Alexa is an increasingly important business for Amazon, which is expanding the assistant into millions of internet-connected gadgets and moving it into the workplace. Drawing in more developers will help the company sell more Alexa-powered devices and strengthen its top-dog status in voice. It’s sold more than 20 million Echo speakers in the US, taking up 70 percent of the market and helping Alexa become the most active voice market for developers today.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Alexa Skill Development Makes Good Money for Some
9 Himalayan “yeti” samples turn out to be bears, dog
Science is rarely kind to “crypto-zoology,” which posits the existence of “hidden” creatures such as yeti, chupacabra, and Korean unicorns. It used to be that you could return from the weekend in the woods to regale your Sasquatch-hunting friends with tales of mysterious nocturnal sounds, a chase in the darkness, and—dramatically pulling a bag from your pocket—a tuft of the unseen creature’s hair that had caught on a tree branch! Maybe your friends believed; maybe they did not. But, in the end, who could say exactly what you might have found?
And then scientists came along, science-ing these kinds of wonderful stories into scientific oblivion using science-y mitochondrial and nuclear DNA testing of purported Sasquatch bits. Such results have never been kind to crypto-zoology, often turning up possum and human DNA rather than anything Sasquatch-y.
But, if I’m remembering my Alexander Pope correctly, humans love to keep looking for mysteries:
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Source: Ars Technica – 9 Himalayan “yeti” samples turn out to be bears, dog
You don’t need a PhD to grasp the anxieties around sex robots
NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
If you want to understand the myriad issues concerning sex robots that humanity needs to grapple with, you have two options. You can either spend sever…
Source: Engadget – You don’t need a PhD to grasp the anxieties around sex robots
New York Removes Old Nuclear Fallout Shelter Signs in Move That Seems Premature
Experts on nuclear confrontation say that a nuclear war is a very real possibility here in the 21st century. The US and North Korea are just one misstep away from nuclear destruction. But that hasn’t stopped New York City officials from beginning to take down outdated nuclear fallout shelter signs posted at public…
Source: Gizmodo – New York Removes Old Nuclear Fallout Shelter Signs in Move That Seems Premature
Vietnam Deploys 10,000 Cyber Warriors to Fight 'Wrongful Views'
Vietnam is deploying a 10,000-member military cyber warfare unit to combat what the government sees as a growing threat of “wrongful views” proliferating on the internet, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing local media reports. From the report: Force 47 has worked pro-actively against distorted information, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported, citing Nguyen Trong Nghia, deputy head of the general politics department under the Vietnam People’s Military. The disclosure of the unit comes as the Communist government pressures YouTube and Facebook to remove videos and accounts seen damaging the reputations of leaders or promoting anti-party views. Facebook this year removed 159 accounts at Vietnam’s behest, while YouTube took down 4,500 videos, or 90 percent of what the government requested, according to VietnamNet news, which cited Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan last week. The National Assembly is debating a cybersecurity bill that would require technology companies to store certain data on servers in the country.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Vietnam Deploys 10,000 Cyber Warriors to Fight ‘Wrongful Views’
Nintendo Risks Pissing Off Developers With Delay of 64 GB Game Cards
One of the only major complaints about the Nintendo Switch is that games are too big to fit on its cartridges and its internal memory is too small to handle the overflow. Now, a plan to address that issue by manufacturing larger 64 GB game cartridges has been delayed until 2019, running the risk of pissing off…
Source: Gizmodo – Nintendo Risks Pissing Off Developers With Delay of 64 GB Game Cards
It Was Only A Matter Of Time: Coyote Peterson Takes Bite From Giant Desert Centipede, Cuts Camera, Goes To Urgent Care
“Dude we might need to use that venom extractor.”
This is a video of insect sting and bite fetishist Coyote Peterson finally meeting his match with a bite from a giant desert centipede. He says the bite “completely eclipses” any bite or sting he’s ever experienced in the past, and eventually requests the cameras be cut (come on, just let them run), uses a venom extractor, and goes to urgent care. I only hope nobody who didn’t purposefully get bitten by a giant desert centipede was behind him in line at the clinic.
Keep going for the video, but the bite doesn’t happen until minute 14 in the 19-minute video, which he follows up with an 11-minute aftermath video, stretching what should have been five minutes of my life into thirty. *shrug* He’s addicting, like the affection of someone you know is a terrible match for you.
Source: Geekologie – It Was Only A Matter Of Time: Coyote Peterson Takes Bite From Giant Desert Centipede, Cuts Camera, Goes To Urgent Care
Library of Congress will no longer save every tweet
Enlarge (credit: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg / Getty Images News)
Yesterday, the US Library of Congress announced a change to its social media archiving policy. In 2010, the LOC had been given a complete archive of every tweet sent to that point; it has been grabbing every single new one since. But starting on the first of January, the archiving will become selective; only tweets that are deemed newsworthy will be kept.
The LOC describes the decision in a very short white paper. Part of the reasoning is the sheer volume of data; the number of tweets is up, and their possible length has been doubled recently. But it’s also a matter of being able to actually preserve content. Tweets now embed pictures, videos, and previews of the content of any links they contain. The LOC has been preserving only text and, therefore, is missing out on an increasingly important portion of the information content of any tweet.
In addition, the Library’s normal role is as a curator, preserving information that’s thought to be most significant or valuable. In this sense, the change will bring its Twitter policy more in line with its general approach to collecting.
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Source: Ars Technica – Library of Congress will no longer save every tweet