Before you head to the airport, be sure to check your reservation for an actual ticket number—or you might end up paying for a $1,200 same-day flight.
Source: LifeHacker – Make Sure Your Flight Reservation Is Ticketed Before You Travel
Monthly Archives: July 2019
Cross Some Far-Flung Destination Off Your Bucket List With Emirates' International Sale
Go take a look at your international travel bucket list, because there’s a pretty good chance one of those destinations is included in Emirates’ big sale.
Source: LifeHacker – Cross Some Far-Flung Destination Off Your Bucket List With Emirates’ International Sale
Optical Illusion Tricks Your Brain Into Seeing COLOR in This Black and White Photo
A mind-boggling optical illusion has divided the internet after appearing to show a black-and-white picture of girls—in color.
Source: Gizmodo – Optical Illusion Tricks Your Brain Into Seeing COLOR in This Black and White Photo
Stranger Parks On Man's Lawn, Uses His Electricity To Recharge Tesla Overnight
Some complete jerk in Lake Worth, Florida recently parked his car on the lawn of homeowner Phil Fraumeni, then proceeded to use an extension cord running from Fraumeni’s house to recharge his Tesla for twelve hours. Some more info while I grab a hammer from the garage and inspect my yard for Teslas:
He said he found the white Tesla on his grass Friday morning.
“It was plugged into my electric outlet on my house,” Fraumeni said.
Fraumeni said he waited a few hours, then called police.
Deputies learned the electric car was not stolen and tracked down the address of the owner.
Fraumeni said a young man and woman showed up his home and the man said he was visiting a friend in the neighborhood when the Tesla battery died.
“From what the boy said from midnight the night before, so 12 hours it was charging,” Fraumeni said.
Fraumeni said he did not press charges against the car owner and did not ask him to reimburse him for the use of electricity.
The estimated cost of the stolen electricity was only around $2, which isn’t much, but what really gets me is apparently the guy didn’t even offer some sort of compensation or apology. What the hell is wrong with you? You don’t just go parking your car in somebody’s yard, steal their electricity and not say sorry or thanks. Were you born in a barn? “Probably a mansion.” That explains it. “Silver spoon in rectum.” I know the type.
Thanks to Jeffey S and hairless, who agree the whole “it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission” only works if you actually ask for that forgiveness.
Source: Geekologie – Stranger Parks On Man’s Lawn, Uses His Electricity To Recharge Tesla Overnight
A meeting of the (twisted) minds: The directors of The Witch and Hereditary talk horror on The A24 Podcast
Summer is the perfect time for sitting around the campfire to revisit the nostalgia of ’90s Nickelodeon classic Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Hosted in the heartfelt way that only folks from Springfield, Illinois can pull off, Sara Laurel Goeckner and Jeremy Goeckner, the wife-and-husband team behind Are You Afraid Of…
Source: io9 – A meeting of the (twisted) minds: The directors of The Witch and Hereditary talk horror on The A24 Podcast
The Bizarre Batman Connection to Quentin Tarantino's New Movie
Odds are we’ll never get to see a Quentin Tarantino superhero movie, but his latest film does pay homage to an iconic superhero property in a bunch of ways.
Source: io9 – The Bizarre Batman Connection to Quentin Tarantino’s New Movie
Facing your AI self at the 'Neural Mirror' art installation
Italian design studio Ultravioletto has created a mirror that lets you see yourself the way corporations see you: as a collection of data points. At first, the Neural Mirror installation (located at a former church in the Italian city of Spoleto), se…
Source: Engadget – Facing your AI self at the ‘Neural Mirror’ art installation
Why do cars have so many cupholders?
The Convenience Industrial Complex makes it so easy to just keep sipping while you drive.
Source: TreeHugger – Why do cars have so many cupholders?
linux.conf.au proposal deadline extended
For those didn’t quite get around to putting in a proposal for
linux.conf.au 2020 (Gold Coast, January 13 to 17), there’s
another chance: the proposal deadline has been extended to August 11.
“We have heard that some of you would like a bit more time to submit your
proposals for linux.conf.au 2020. So, we have decided to extend the due
date by two weeks to help everyone have a chance to submit.“
Source: LWN.net – linux.conf.au proposal deadline extended
Ethiopia Plants 350 Million Trees in a Day To Help Tackle Climate Crisis
About 350 million trees have been planted in a single day in Ethiopia, according to a government minister. From a report: The planting is part of a national “green legacy” initiative to grow 4 billion trees in the country this summer by encouraging every citizen to plant at least 40 seedlings. Public offices have reportedly been shut down in order for civil servants to take part. The project aims to tackle the effects of deforestation and climate change in the drought-prone country. According to the UN, Ethiopia’s forest coverage was just 4% in the 2000s, down from 35% a century earlier.
Ethiopia’s minister of innovation and technology, Dr Getahun Mekuria, tweeted estimates of the number of trees planted throughout the day. By early evening on Monday, he put the number at 353 million. The previous world record for the most trees planted in one day stood at 50 million, held by India since 2016.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Ethiopia Plants 350 Million Trees in a Day To Help Tackle Climate Crisis
United Airlines Is Expanding Its Creepy Biometric Screening Technology to More Airport Hubs
United Airlines announced this week that it’s investing in the growth of biometric screening technology in a bid to streamline passenger travel—even as big questions remain about how such technology impacts consumer privacy.
Source: Gizmodo – United Airlines Is Expanding Its Creepy Biometric Screening Technology to More Airport Hubs
The End Of Assassin's Creed Odyssey Is Finally Within My Reach
The developers of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey have been moving the game’s finish line farther out since October of last year, but I think I’m finally about to catch it. This sums up my gaming experience these days, perpetually racing toward a moving goal.
Source: Kotaku – The End Of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Is Finally Within My Reach
Google confirms Pixel 4 will support face unlock, touch-free gestures
Google is once again validating rumors about the Pixel 4, this time for its touch-free control. The company has confirmed that its next flagship phones will include motion-sensing Soli radar that lets you skip tracks, silence phone calls and otherwis…
Source: Engadget – Google confirms Pixel 4 will support face unlock, touch-free gestures
Watch Two Meteor Showers Peak Tonight
Two meteor showers—the Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids—are both reaching their peak tonight and into Tuesday morning. And with a moon that will be just 6% full, the dark skies could be the perfect stage for quite a meteor show.
Source: LifeHacker – Watch Two Meteor Showers Peak Tonight
Fortnite's First Solo Champ Is 16 Years Old And Now $3 Million Richer
When I was 16 years old, I remember cruising the mall and local stores in search for a job that would inevitably pay minimum wage, as many jobs do at that age. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf eschewed the traditional route that most teens take, and collected a cool $3 million from Epic Games for dominating at the Fortnite World Cup.
Yes, at 16 years
Source: Hot Hardware – Fortnite’s First Solo Champ Is 16 Years Old And Now Million Richer
Despite what this interviewer repeatedly insists, Jim Carrey is not playing Sonic The Hedgehog
Jim Carrey interviews can go different ways. In some cases, he may decide to blow his interviewer’s mind by musing on the absurdity of existence at a Fashion Week red carpet. In others, like in a chat with an Access reporter from back in April, he may reign himself in entirely, politely insisting over and over again…
Source: Kotaku – Despite what this interviewer repeatedly insists, Jim Carrey is not playing Sonic The Hedgehog
How to Install Xrdp Server (Remote Desktop) on Ubuntu 18.04
Xrdp is an open-source implementation of the Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) allowing you to graphically control a remote system. With RDP you can log in to the remote machine and create a real desktop session same as if you had logged in to a local machine.
Source: LXer – How to Install Xrdp Server (Remote Desktop) on Ubuntu 18.04
American Movie Studios Appease Chinese Censors
An anonymous reader writes: To stay on Beijing’s good side, U.S. filmmakers are willing to kowtow to China’s authoritarian regime, and there seems no limit to their willingness to acquiesce. Take Top Gun: Maverick, a long-awaited sequel to the 1986 classic action film that made Tom Cruise a superstar. After the sequel’s trailer was unveiled at San Diego’s ComicCon last week, alert fans noted that the iconic leather flight jacket worn by Cruise’s character in the original film had been altered. All of the patches from the original film were there except for flags representing Chinese adversaries Japan and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Those flags were missing. The culprits were soon pretty obvious. The Hollywood Reporter found that the Chinese company Tencent is co-financing the sequel. Co-producing the film along with Paramount Pictures is Skydance, which is partially owned by Tencent.
“Top Gun is an American classic, and it’s incredibly disappointing to see Hollywood elites appease the Chinese Communist Party,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas lamented to the Washington Free Beacon. “The Party uses China’s economy to silence dissent against its brutal repression and to erode the sovereignty of American allies like Taiwan. Hollywood is afraid to stand up for free speech and is enabling the Party’s campaign against Taiwan.” Senator Lindsey Graham, a colleague of Cruz’s, chimed in. “I hate to see the flag removed because of Chinese financing,” he said in an interview with TMZ. “It’s nothing the government can do, but I think it sucks.” Nor is Top Gun: Maverick the only example of genuflection. China is almost uniformly portrayed in American movies as a technologically advanced superpower (see movies such as The Martian, 2012, and Looper). In Looper, a science-fiction drama, a time-traveler is learning French and saving his money so that he can move to Paris. But his boss, who is from the future, says he is making a mistake.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – American Movie Studios Appease Chinese Censors
Radeon RX 5700 / RX 5700 XT Linux Gaming Performance With AMDGPU 5.3 + Mesa 19.2-devel
Now that the flow of initial Navi fixes and optimizations has settled down for both the AMDGPU DRM kernel driver and the Mesa RADV/RadeonSI user-space driver components, here is a look at AMD Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT graphics card performance on Ubuntu Linux at the end of July, now three weeks after these 7nm graphics cards first shipped.
Source: Phoronix – Radeon RX 5700 / RX 5700 XT Linux Gaming Performance With AMDGPU 5.3 + Mesa 19.2-devel
Privacy group asks court to reconsider FTC’s $5 billion Facebook deal
Enlarge / Thumbs down. (credit: Getty Images | Ted Soqui )
A group of privacy and consumer organizations is asking a federal court to slow its roll on approving the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion settlement with Facebook, saying it doesn’t do nearly enough to protect individuals.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed the motion to intervene (PDF) with the US District Court in Washington, DC on Friday, asking the court to let it and other privacy advocacy groups file comments in a “careful review of the fairness and adequacy” of the proposed settlement.
The agreement between Facebook and the FTC, as announced last week, includes a record-setting $5 billion fine and mandates changes to Facebook’s reporting structure and oversight for privacy-related matters.
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Source: Ars Technica – Privacy group asks court to reconsider FTC’s billion Facebook deal