The process of turning coal—possibly the most carbon-intensive and environmentally harmful fossil fuel—into a liquid gas fell out of favor after World War II, due to its high cost, pollution footprint, and readily available alternatives like natural gas and petroleum. But as coal for electricity and industrial use…
Source: io9 – The Dumb Dream of Turning Coal to Gas Just Won’t Die
Sometimes it feels like gaming headsets have just gotten a bit too extra recently, with everything from superfluous RGB lighting to built-in rumble motors. When I’m trying to pick out an excellent wireless gaming headset, I’m not asking for much. I’m looking for comfort, solid audio, strong battery life and…
Source: Gizmodo – HyperX’s Cloud II Wireless Is a Simple Gaming Headset Done Right
We’ve learned a lot this year, don’t you think? We know more about respiratory droplets than we ever cared to know, we have a more thorough understanding of the nuances of our electoral process, and we’ve learned that apparently we can work from home and our kids can learn from home for months on end even if we…
Source: LifeHacker – The Year’s Best Advice for Raising Little Kids
Don’t fret if you didn’t get a tablet as a gift this holiday — you might have a chance to buy one for yourself at a discount. Best Buy is selling the current-generation 10.2-inch iPad at all-time low prices, starting at $300 for the 32GB version and…
Source: Engadget – Apple’s 10-inch iPad is on sale for an all-time low at Best Buy
Hey, have you heard—Samsung is launching a new flagship phone series, the Galaxy S21, in the very near future. Of course you have heard, because there has been a deluge of leaks and rumors related to the upcoming phone lineup, including official looking press renders. As we get closer to the actual launch, Samsung has begun accepting preorder
Source: Hot Hardware – Samsung Galaxy S21 Preorder Registrations Open In U.S. As Full Specs Leak
Bootlin working under contract for an unnamed NAS vendor has been working to update the Large Page Support for 32-bit ARM and ultimately coming up with an upstream-friendly way to be able to support more than 16TB of storage on 32-bit ARM devices…
Source: Phoronix – Bootlin’s Pursuit To Let 32-bit ARM NAS Devices Support More Than 16TiB Of Storage
Learn how to use the systemctl command to list Linux services and check their status.
Source: Linux Today – Listing Linux Services with Systemctl
You can now use Google Assistant for voice searches in Google Chrome on Android, and not a moment too soon. The move saves Chrome users from the lackluster voice recognition you were forced to deal with previously.
Source: LifeHacker – How to Enable Google Assistant in Android’s Chrome Browser
A judge has confirmed Nintendo’s court victory over a go-kart company that did Mario Kart-themed tours on the streets of Tokyo, Engadget Japan reports. Early this, year, MariCar (now branded as Street Kart) was ordered to pay Nintendo $50 million yen…
Source: Engadget – Nintendo seals court victory against knock-off ‘Mario Kart’ tour company
Today Xiaomi held the Chinese launch announcement of the new Mi 11 – the company’s new mainstream flagship phone for 2021. The new phone features a new super-high-end OLED screen that ticks off every checkmark feature that you’d expect from a 2021 design, including 1440p resolution and 120Hz refresh rates, features the new Snapdragon 888 SoC at its heart – as well as comes in a new thinner, lighter, and more stylish industrial design compared to its predecessors.
Source: AnandTech – Xiaomi Announces the Mi 11: First Snapdragon 888 Device
There’s a brand new version of Windows on the way, and it’s set to change how we interact with our PCs—and even change our ideas about what a PC actually is. Here’s everything you need to know Windows 10X as it stands now, and the devices that will be compatible in 2021.
Source: Gizmodo – What Windows 10X is Going to Mean for Microsoft Hardware in 2021
A Chinese citizen journalist who covered Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak has been jailed for four years. From a report: Zhang Zhan was found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a frequent charge against activists. The 37-year-old former lawyer was detained in May, and has been on hunger strike for several months. Her lawyers say she is in poor health. Ms Zhang is one of several citizen journalists who have run into trouble for reporting on Wuhan. There is no free media in China and authorities are known to clamp down on activists or whistleblowers seen as undermining the government’s response to the outbreak.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – China Jails Citizen Journalist for Wuhan Reports
PowerA Wireless GameCube Controller Party Pack | $70 | Amazon
Here’s my humble opinion no one asked for: the GameCube controller is still the best layout for Super Smash Bros. Sure, the Switch Pro Controller has really bridged the gap in recent years, but the old GameCube layout just feels custom-built for the fighting…
Source: Gizmodo – Get a Trio of Switch-Compatible GameCube Controllers for and Play Some Dang Smash Bros.
If you want to contribute to the Fedora project and community, participating in a test day is an excellent way to start. This test week will focus on the linux kernel 5.10 for Fedora.
Source: LXer – Contribute at the Fedora Test Week for Kernel 5.10
At what passes for its best, technology would seem equipped to provide a slight relief from tedium/despair, or a semi-efficient if error-prone method of trying to keep in touch with your parents. What it seems wholly unequipped to provide is “happiness.” Think of the most smartphone-dependent people you know. Do they…
Source: Gizmodo – Is Technology Making Me More Depressed?
Enlarge (credit: Traitov | Getty Images)
2020 was a tough year for a lot of reasons, not least of which were breaches and hacks that visited pain on end users, customers, and the organizations that were targeted. The ransomware menace dominated headlines, with an endless stream of compromises hitting schools, governments, and private companies as criminals demanded ransoms in the millions of dollars. There was a steady stream of data breaches as well. Several mass account takeovers made appearances, too.
What follows are some of the highlights. For good measure, we’re also throwing in a couple notable hacks that, while not actively used in the wild, were impressive beyond measure or pushed the boundaries of security.
2020 saved the most devastating breach for last. Hackers that multiple public officials say are backed by the Russian government started by compromising the software distribution system of SolarWinds, the maker of network monitoring software that tens of thousands of organizations use. The hackers then used their position to deliver a backdoored update to about 18,000 customers. From there, the hackers had the ability to steal, destroy, or modify data on the networks of any of those customers.
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Source: Ars Technica – 2020 had its share of merorable hacks and breaches. Here are the top 10
Have you seen that sleek Apple Car video that’s currently going viral on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube? The car has bizarre spherical wheels and can self-park, if you can believe your lying eyes.
Source: Gizmodo – That Viral Video of an ‘Apple Car’ Parking Is Totally Fake
America’s next president takes office in three weeks and two days. What changes should he make to America’s space program? An opinion writer at Bloomberg tackles the question:
Donald Trump badly wanted to be the president who sent Americans back to the moon. Instead, his administration has presided over Artemis, a lunar-landing program plagued by “uncertain plans, unproven cost assumptions, and limited oversight,” according to a new watchdog report. Pieces of the program, including the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, are billions of dollars over budget, years past deadline and poised to eat into NASA’s more promising projects. As a result, the U.S. space agency will almost certainly miss its goal of landing Americans on the moon again by 2024. President-elect Joe Biden inherits the task of deciding what to do next.
– He should focus on what has made the U.S. space program distinctive in recent years: the power of private competition…
– The government bears all the risk of missed deadlines and rising costs. A more efficient alternative is fixed-price contracts, in which a company keeps as profit whatever’s left over after it completes its assigned task. Beginning in 2006, NASA has used such contracts to boost the development of private space companies capable of reaching the International Space Station. The initiative has worked far better than anyone could’ve expected. In a 2011 report, NASA expressed bewilderment that SpaceX, then a young upstart, managed to develop its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket for just $390 million — as opposed to a likely cost of $1.7 billion to $4 billion under traditional cost-plus assumptions. Today, the rocket delivers hardware and astronauts for companies and space agencies around the world. Come January, the Biden administration should take a similar approach to the troubled Artemis system. Step one should be eliminating SLS and Orion altogether in favor of cheaper private-sector alternatives….
Currently, there are a number of Artemis elements being developed under fixed-price contracts, including future lunar landers. The new administration should use a similar approach with as many aspects of the project as possible, thereby harnessing the efficiency and inventiveness of private competition.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Will America’s Next President Change Its Space Program?
Fusion energy could, possibly, meet all our energy demands. It’s just a not-so-simple matter of getting the process to work in a sustained way. We’re still talking seconds of output at the moment, but the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Resear…
Source: Engadget – The Morning After: Breakthrough fusion energy experiment sets new world record
Treblab Z2 Wireless Headphones | $59 | Amazon
Source: Gizmodo – For the Next Week Save on Treblab’s Z2 Wireless Headphones
