As users migrate away from Twitter, many wonder what the equivalent of the famous blue checkmark is on Mastodon. Ignoring debates about how anyone can be sure of anyone’s true identity online, it’s easy to verify yourself on Mastodon when you have a WordPress site.
Source: LXer – Get verified on Mastodon with WordPress
Monthly Archives: November 2022
Here’s How Long a Used Car Can Really ‘Last’
Like almost every consumer good, the used car market has been bonkers over the last few years. While used vehicle prices are still up significantly, both prices and demand appear to be dropping slightly, and if you’re considering purchasing a used car, you may want to know how to weigh current mileage against the…
Source: LifeHacker – Here’s How Long a Used Car Can Really ‘Last’
Pokémon Scarlet And Violet May Be Spectacularly Broken, But It Absolutely Nails Co-Op
There is no doubt at all that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet (PSV) has been released in a poor state. Riddled with bugs right from the opening scenes, many game-breaking, it’s impossible to ignore. With no guarantee of sustaining progress, it has been released in an unacceptable condition. Right, that’s all said, so I can…
Source: Kotaku – Pokémon Scarlet And Violet May Be Spectacularly Broken, But It Absolutely Nails Co-Op
Interactive Map Of The Universe Shows Our Vast, Beautiful Cosmos In Striking Detail
A new map has been created which allows users to investigate the entire observable universe with pinpoint accuracy for the first time ever. The gorgeous compilation was pieced together using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by astronomers at Johns Hopkins University mined over the last two decades.
Scientists and astronomers continue
Source: Hot Hardware – Interactive Map Of The Universe Shows Our Vast, Beautiful Cosmos In Striking Detail
Domino’s buys 800 Chevrolet Bolt EVs as pizza delivery vehicles
Enlarge / Domino’s new fleet of 2023 Chevrolet Bolts are unmistakeable. (credit: Domino’s Pizza)
While it may not be your favorite pizza-slinger, one has to respect Domino’s Pizza for being forward-looking. Whether or not it actually launched the first pizza delivery service in 1960, it certainly popularized the idea and more recently has been testing autonomous vehicles and sidewalk robots to deliver pizza.
At some point, before robotic Domino’s delivery is commonplace, its pizzas may speed their way to you in an electric car.
On Monday the company announced the arrival of more than 100 Chevrolet Bolts to select Domino’s locations, with another 700 due by the end of 2023. You can even check on their progress online—of Bolt deliveries, not pizza deliveries, although that’s possible, too, thanks to onboard telematics.
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Source: Ars Technica – Domino’s buys 800 Chevrolet Bolt EVs as pizza delivery vehicles
Nasa's Orion Capsule Reaches Moon on Way To Record-Breaking Lunar Orbit
Nasa’s Orion capsule reached the moon on Monday, whipping around the back side and passing within 80 miles of the surface on its way to a record-breaking lunar orbit. From a report: The close approach occurred as the crew capsule and its three test dummies were on the far side of the moon. Because of the half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers in Houston did not know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the moon, more than 232,000 miles from Earth.
It’s the first time a capsule has visited the moon since Nasa’s Apollo program 50 years ago, and represented a huge milestone in the $4.1bn test flight that began last Wednesday after Orion launched into space atop the massive Artemis rocket. Orion’s flight path took it over the landing sites of Apollo 11, 12 and 14 — humankind’s first three lunar touchdowns. The moon loomed ever larger in the video beamed back earlier in the morning, as the capsule closed the final few thousand miles since blasting off last Wednesday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, atop the most powerful rocket ever built by Nasa. “This is one of those days that you’ve been thinking about and talking about for a long, long time,” flight director Zeb Scoville said while waiting to resume contact. As the capsule swung out from behind the moon, onboard cameras sent back a picture of Earth, a blue dot surrounded by blackness.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Nasa’s Orion Capsule Reaches Moon on Way To Record-Breaking Lunar Orbit
Tile discounts a bunch of Bluetooth trackers in time for Black Friday
Tile has discounted a handful of its popular Bluetooth item trackers ahead of Black Friday. The deals include the latest Tile Mate tracker down to $18, which is about $7 off its usual going rate and tied for the lowest price we’ve seen. The diminutive Tile Sticker is on sale for $20, which is $1 more than its all-time low but still $10 off its typical street price. The credit-card-shaped Tile Slim, meanwhile, is discounted to $25, which is $2 above the all-time low but also roughly $10 below its average street price.
Shop Tile tracker sale at Amazon
The offers are available at third-party retailers like Amazon and Tile’s own online store; the latter includes a few extra discounted bundles, and some of the deals there include a year of the company’s Premium subscription, which includes perks like free battery replacements. Tile is advertising the discounts as its “Holiday Sale,” so we expect them to carry over into Black Friday proper.
Tile trackers remain a worthy alternative to Apple’s AirTags — which are also on sale this week — for Android users. They aren’t as precise at locating an attached item as AirTags, and they can’t leverage a device network as mammoth as Apple’s, but their crowd-finding network is the next largest available, and the three trackers on sale here can use Bluetooth to directly locate lost items about 200-250 feet away. They’re also available in a more versatile range of designs: The Mate, for instance, has a built-in keyring hole, while the Sticker can attach directly to smaller items through an adhesive back.
Tile was acquired last year by family tracking company Life360, which recently said it would integrate Tile with its own locator service. The parent company promised to scale down its selling of user data earlier this year after past reports, but tracking devices like these still aren’t likely to appeal to privacy hawks. None of the devices on sale here include a replaceable battery, either — that’s now limited to the $35 Tile Pro, which isn’t discounted. (Tile estimates the sealed batteries in the Mate, Sticker and Slim will last up to three years.) Still, if you tend to misplace your keys or wallet and want some extra peace of mind, these can provide that, and now they’re a little more affordable.
Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.
Source: Engadget – Tile discounts a bunch of Bluetooth trackers in time for Black Friday
TikTok’s Trash Walker Wants Us to Make Less Garbage
Anna Sacks has an entire TikTok account dedicated to being a “trash walker.” She walks around Manhattan, looking for items that were left out on the curb, and salvages them: Her finds have gone viral for exposing obscene amounts of waste, including bags and bags of unopened chocolates outside of a major pharmacy…
Source: Gizmodo – TikTok’s Trash Walker Wants Us to Make Less Garbage
Orion soars around the Moon with a lonely Earth in the distance
Enlarge / This image taken by NASA’s Orion spacecraft shows its view just before the vehicle flew behind the Moon. (credit: NASA)
NASA’s Orion spacecraft flew to within 130 km of the Moon’s surface on Monday morning after executing one of the most demanding maneuvers of its 25-day mission.
Since launching on top of the Space Launch System rocket last Wednesday, Orion’s European Service Module had conducted four “trajectory correction burns” on the way to the Moon. These were brief firings of the service module’s main engine, an Aerojet-built AJ10 engine. However, the propulsion system faced a stiffer test on Monday as part of a maneuver to enter orbit around the Moon. It passed with flying colors.
The AJ10 engine burned for 2 minutes and 30 seconds as Orion passed behind the Moon, out of contact with NASA back on Earth. When Orion reemerged from the lunar shadow, all was well, and the spacecraft was positioned to reach its temporary destination—a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.
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Source: Ars Technica – Orion soars around the Moon with a lonely Earth in the distance
Leap Second Scrapped by International Time Keepers
The final countdown has begun for leap seconds. A global group of scientists and government officials voted (almost unanimously) Friday to axe the small time adjustment method, in a change scheduled to take place by 2035.
Source: Gizmodo – Leap Second Scrapped by International Time Keepers
Tesla Recalls Over 321K Model 3 And Model Y EV Cars Due To This Safety Issue
In a second recall announced within almost a 24-hour period, Tesla Motors is recalling more than 321,000 of their cars. The issue at hand is a possible failure of the rear tail light(s) to illuminate, and affects 2020-2023 Model Y and 2023 Model 3 models. The filing published on Saturday to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Source: Hot Hardware – Tesla Recalls Over 321K Model 3 And Model Y EV Cars Due To This Safety Issue
This Is the Fastest Way to Launch Apps on Your Mac
There are plenty of ways to launch apps on your Mac—to start with, you can pin apps to your dock or use Spotlight to search for and open apps. There’s an even faster way to launch apps, though: by using a floating dock.
Source: LifeHacker – This Is the Fastest Way to Launch Apps on Your Mac
Sony And Honda Plan To Beat Tesla At Its Own EV Game By Putting PS5 Consoles In Cars
Look out for Honda-Sony’s 2025 electric vehicle(s) that will allow you to play your favorite PlayStation games while in autonomous drive mode.
The Japanese mashup of Honda and Sony that came about earlier this year has eyes on the electric vehicle (EV) market pie. One idea that has emerged from this joint venture revolves around entertainment—which
Source: Hot Hardware – Sony And Honda Plan To Beat Tesla At Its Own EV Game By Putting PS5 Consoles In Cars
Apple Says Your iPhone's Usage Data is Anonymous, but New Tests Say That's Not True
A new test of how Apple gathers usage data from iPhones has found that the company collects personally identifiable information while explicitly promising not to.
Source: Gizmodo – Apple Says Your iPhone’s Usage Data is Anonymous, but New Tests Say That’s Not True
Meta Is on the Prowl for 'Suspicious Adults' Messaging Teenagers
Meta says it is taking additional steps to help protect the youth on its platforms. Now, anyone under the age of 16 years old can enroll in new privacy settings that are meant to limit who can see their Facebook profile. Likewise, Meta says it’s also testing the removal of the messaging button on teen’s Instagram…
Source: Gizmodo – Meta Is on the Prowl for ‘Suspicious Adults’ Messaging Teenagers
Twitch Star Gets ‘Cracker Pass' From Wheat Thins After Getting Banned For Saying It
Last year, Hasan “Hasanabi” Piker was temporarily banned from the Amazon-owned streaming platform, Twitch, for having the audacity to say “cracker” full-throated while broadcasting to an audience of 2.3 million followers. Last week, everyone’s favorite tiny-headed socialist streamer finally received a pass to say the…
Source: Kotaku – Twitch Star Gets ‘Cracker Pass’ From Wheat Thins After Getting Banned For Saying It
A Soil Fungus That Causes Lung Infections Is Spreading Across the U.S.
An illness-causing fungus known as hisoplasma is in the soil of nearly all U.S. states, a new study suggests. The researchers behind the work say doctors may be relying on outdated risk maps and therefore missing diagnoses of the infections, which can sometimes be deadly.
Source: Gizmodo – A Soil Fungus That Causes Lung Infections Is Spreading Across the U.S.
Blue Yeti mics are up to 35 percent off for Black Friday
Now is the time to splurge on a gift for a rookie podcaster or game streamer. Amazon is running a sale on many Blue microphones for Black Friday, with up to 35 percent off Yeti models. The Blue Yeti Nano is down to $70 (normally $100), while the regular Yeti has dipped to $90 (usually $130). You can also find deals for higher-end models and bundles.
Blue has a reputation for quality microphones, particularly for anyone making their first foray beyond built-in mics. As Engadget’s own Valentina Palladino noticed, the ‘entry’ Yeti Nano provides a major audio quality upgrade for podcasts and video calls without consuming much desk space. It’s also reasonably future-proof with both cardioid and omnidirectional polar patterns — you can host roundtable podcasts in addition to virtual chats.
Higher-end models mainly improve fidelity and monitoring. The standard Blue Yeti has three condensers versus the Nano’s two, and supports stereo and figure-eight patterns. Spring for the top-end Yeti X and you’ll get four condensers, 24-bit/192kHz audio, LED metering (to keep your output at the right volume) and even custom lighting. These won’t replace the most advanced microphones on the market, but the sale prices make them good values for many users.
Buy Blue microphones at Amazon – starting at $70
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Source: Engadget – Blue Yeti mics are up to 35 percent off for Black Friday
Marvel's Thunderbolts Movie Might Have Found Its Villain
Nicholas Hoult teases a Maximum Cage performance for Renfield’s Dracula. Disney+’s Percy Jackson finds itself some more gods. Daredevil: Born Again could feature another street-level hero. Plus, what’s coming on the next Rick and Morty. Spoilers now!
Source: Gizmodo – Marvel’s Thunderbolts Movie Might Have Found Its Villain
You Should Add Tofu to Your Meatballs
Dense meatballs got you down? Despite your attempts at rolling well-mixed yet tender meatballs, do you end up with rubber super balls every time? All that’s about to change, and it starts with the mix. To help encourage a crumbly blend, use tofu.
Source: LifeHacker – You Should Add Tofu to Your Meatballs