There are many things that can smell gross in your home, but a stinky sink drain is one of the worst. It lingers at the corner of your consciousness, always there, vaguely bothering you. How did it come to this, and how do you fix it There are a few common ways that your drain may have gotten smelly, but that’s…
Source: LifeHacker – The Easiest Way to Destink Your Smelly Sink Drain
Android users in India will soon have more control over their devices, thanks to a court ruling. Beginning next month, Indian Android wielders can choose a different billing system when paying for apps and in-app smartphone purchases rather than default to going through the Play Store. Google will also allow Indian…
Source: Gizmodo – Android Users Can Finally Use Alternate Search and Payment Methods… but Only in India
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: At the Flutter Forward event, Google released Flutter 3.7 with more Material You widgets and menus support, while also teasing the future of the app development framework. Having grown from humble beginnings on Android and iOS, Google’s Flutter SDK can now help you create apps for mobile, desktop, web, and more, all from a single Dart codebase. Since launch, over 700,000 Flutter apps have been published across various platforms.
Today in Nairobi, Kenya, the Flutter team hosted Flutter Forward, an event to connect with the growing global community of developers and showcase the future of app development. For starters, Flutter version 3.7 has now been released, bringing with it a whole host of Material 3 (Material You) widgets. To get a feel for what all is possible with the new generation of Material Design in Flutter, Google has prepared a fun web showcase that even allows you to toggle between Material Theming and Material You. You’ll also find that Flutter 3.7 includes new support for creating menus for your app — including native support for macOS menus, new cascading menu widgets, and the ability to add items to right-click/long-press context menus. The built-in text magnifier on Android and iOS also now works as expected with Flutter’s text fields. You can learn more about the improvements of Flutter 3.7 in the full release blog.
Looking ahead, the Flutter team has been working for quite some time on replacing the Skia renderer with a more robust solution of its own. Currently dubbed “Impeller,” Flutter’s new rendering engine has made significant enough progress to now be ready for developers to test it with their iOS apps. […] Google is also working on new ways to help Flutter apps integrate with the underlying OS or platform. […] Meanwhile, for Flutter web apps, a new “js” library makes it easy to call your app’s Dart code from the outer page’s JavaScript code. Relatedly, you can now embed a Flutter view onto a page through a standard HTML div. Both of these can be seen in a fun demonstration page.
Elsewhere in Flutter web news, Google has made strides toward compiling Dart apps using WebAssembly. […] In time, this should result in significant performance improvements for Flutter on the web. In addition to compiling to WebAssembly, the Dart team has also begun offering full support for the RISC-V architecture, with the ultimate goal of Flutter apps running on RISC-V. Another major announcement today is that Google is moving forward with its plans to release version 3.0 of the Dart programming language upon which Flutter apps are built. Dart 3.0 is available today for early alpha testing with a focus on requiring sound null safety.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Google Releases Flutter 3.7, Teases Future of App Development Framework
More than two years after Meta extended former President Donald Trump’s “indefinite” suspension from Facebook, the company has opted to reinstate his account. In a statement, Meta said Trump would be able to access his Facebook and Instagram accounts in the “coming weeks,” but that there would be “new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”
The decision comes after Trump’s campaign had reportedly pushed for the former president to be allowed back on Facebook ahead of the upcoming presidential primaries.
Trump was originally booted from Facebook in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, after publicly praising the rioters. Meta’s handling of the initial suspension, which it quickly extended from a 24-hour ban to an “indefinite” suspension, was heavily criticized, including by its own Oversight Board. In its decision weighing in on Trump’s suspension, the board slammed Meta for not following its own rules and trying to “avoid its responsibilities.”
Meta then revisited the suspension, and said it would last for at least two years. However, the company confirmed that Trump would eventually be allowed back on Facebook. Nick Clegg, Meta’s top policy official, said at the time the former president would be “subject to new enhanced penalties” for future policy violations.
Now, Clegg says that Trump and other public figures who have been reinstated following suspensions “related to civil unrest” will face new suspensions, lasting for at least a month, for future offenses. He added Meta would also take steps to limit the reach of Trump’s posts if they contribute “to the sort of risk that materialized on January 6th, such as content that delegitimizes an upcoming election or is related to QAnon.” While Meta may not remove those posts entirely, he said the company would consider removing the share button and blocking them from the company’s advertising and recommendations systems.
Clegg also confirmed that the company’s controversial “newsworthiness” policies could continue to apply to Trump. “In the event that Mr. Trump posts content that violates the letter of the Community Standards but, under our newsworthy content policy, we assess there is a public interest in knowing that Mr. Trump made the statement that outweighs any potential harm, we may similarly opt to restrict the distribution of such posts but leave them visible on Mr. Trump’s account,” Clegg wrote.
Meta’s decision comes just months after Elon Musk also restored the former president’s Twitter account. Trump has so far declined to restart his Twitter habit — he decamped to Truth Social last year — but is reportedly planning to return, according to a recent report in Rolling Stone. While the former president was known to favor Twitter, his Facebook following was also an important asset to both of his previous campaigns.
Trump’s suspension was also the first major test of Meta’s Oversight Board, which the company formed to help it weigh in on thorny content moderation and policy decisions. In a statement Wednesday, the board said that it had “no role” in the company’s decision to reinstate Trump, and that it plans to “publish a fuller analysis of this case in a future quarterly transparency report.”
Source: Engadget – Donald Trump will get his Facebook and Instagram accounts back ‘in the coming weeks’
Enlarge / Elon Musk had plenty of headaches in 2022 but Tesla making money wasn’t one of them. (credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Tesla published its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022 on Wednesday afternoon. The company brought in $24.3 billion in revenue, a 37 percent increase on Q4 2021. Automotive revenues accounted for the lion’s share—$21.3 billion, a 33 percent increase from Q4 2021. That translated to $3.7 billion in net profit once generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) were applied—an impressive 59 percent increase from Q4 2021.
That means Tesla had an excellent 2022, despite missing its sales forecast. Automotive revenues grew by 51 percent compared to 2021, bringing in $71.5 billion. Total revenues were up by the same percentage year-over-year at $81.4 billion. Operating expenses accounted for $7.2 billion, and once GAAP was applied, Tesla ended the year with a net profit of $12.6 billion. Free cash flow dropped by 49 percent to $1.4 billion.
Tesla recognized revenue for its highly controversial “Full Self Driving” assist this year after making the beta open to all Tesla owners—provided they paid $15,000. However, despite CEO Elon Musk’s claims that the financial future of the company depends upon FSD, in 2022 that only translated to $324 million. Tesla’s financial presentation does claim that “we expect to recognize nearly $1 billion of deferred revenue that remains for such customers over times as software updates are delivered.” Elsewhere in its financial presentation, it claims that there are approximately 400,000 FSD users in the US and Canada.
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Source: Ars Technica – Tesla made an annual profit of .6 billion in 2022
An asteroid is on its way to Earth, but don’t worry—the end is not here. The asteroid, dubbed 2023 BU, is about the size of a box truck and is not projected to impact our planet during its flyby on Thursday. However, it will be “one of the closest approaches by a known near-Earth object ever recorded,” according to a…
Source: Gizmodo – A Truck-Size Asteroid Will Come ‘Extraordinarily Close’ to Earth Tomorrow
Today Microsoft held its Developer Direct presentation, focusing on a number of new games coming to Xbox, PC, and Game Pass. We got a fresh look at some anticipated titles, as well as a neat little rhythmic surprise from the developers of The Evil Within. But enough chatter, let’s get into what Microsoft showed off…
Source: Kotaku – Everything We Saw At Today’s Xbox Developer Direct
Valentine’s Day falls on a Tuesday in 2023, which means most of us will be working. If treating your special person to a dinner out in’t in the cards on a weeknight, your first if going to have to be creative enough to tide them over until Friday night.
Here are our best bets: eight special gift ideas that show how…
Source: LifeHacker – 7 Creative Valentine’s Day Gifts Under
If Tesla was any other company, most analysts would think it a shining diamond compared to the hard time most other tech-related companies have had at the end of 2022. But this is Tesla, driven by the (cough) magnificent billionaire Elon Musk.
Source: Gizmodo – Tesla Is Making Record Profits, but It’s Not Nearly Enough to Match Musk’s Growth Goals
When Intel announced the lineup for its Arc “Alchemist” graphics cards, there were three tiers, just like its CPUs. We’ve seen Arc A300 GPUs, and we’ve seen Arc A700 GPUs, but so far, the A500 series is missing in action. Well now, a new benchmark leak may contain exactly that; with 16 Xe Cores, it lands directly between the A380 and A750.
This
Source: Hot Hardware – Mysterious Intel Arc Desktop GPU With 16 Xe Cores And 2.45GHz Clock Breaks Cover
It’s arriving several months later than expected, but Arkane’s next big game is (relatively) close at hand. The studio has confirmed that Redfall will be available on May 2nd for Xbox Series X/S and Windows PCs, with launch day access through Game Pass. As before, the vampire-slaying shooter is an expansion of the formulas behind Dishonored and Prey — it’s a stealth-friendly game built with multiplayer and unpredictability in mind.
Like other Arkane titles, Redfall hinges on player choice. You can directly fight the vampires taking over the game’s namesake town, but you’ll also be rewarded if you take the stealthy approach or make clever uses of your gear. The open world concept isn’t strictly new (Prey had it), but the choice of characters and online play are. You can choose a hero that reflects your play style, and up to four people can take down the villains in co-op mode. Certain tactics only work when you’re playing as a team.
The free-ranging gameplay adds some variety, but you can also expect weapons with randomized stats and customization. Some mechanics will be familiar. You’ll find activities beyond the main story missions (such as rescuing survivors), skill trees and other systems that encourage doing more than the essentials.
It’s too soon to say if Redfall will maintain Arkane’s reputation. However, it’s evident the developer is happy to build on its better-known gameplay mechanics rather than take some chances like it did with Deathloop. If you tried Prey and wished your friends could join in, though, you might be happy.
Source: Engadget – ‘Redfall’ brings open-world vampire hunting to Xbox and PC on May 2nd
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is developing a new system to help military personnel perform complex tasks. Perceptually-enabled Task Guidance (PTG) technology uses sensors to see and hear what the user sees and hears, guiding them through AI-produced instructions displayed in augmented reality (AR).
PTG combines sensors (a microphone and head-mounted camera) with AI and AR headsets to integrate into the user’s environment. The idea is to help soldiers and other military personnel enhance their skills, complete complicated tasks and perform them better. DARPA has narrowed its focus to three areas: battlefield medicine (like untrained personnel helping medics in the field), sustainment (keeping military equipment up and running) and co-piloting (especially helicopters).
However, DARPA’s training demos use something more pedestrian: cooking. Dr. Bruce Draper, the program’s manager, describes it as the ideal proxy task. “[Cooking is] a good example of a complex physical task that can be done in many ways. There are lots of different objects, solids, liquids, things change state, so it’s visually quite complex. There is specialized terminology, there are specialized devices, and there’s a lot of different ways it can be accomplished. So it’s a really good practice domain.” The team views PTG as eventually finding uses in medical training, evaluating the competency of medics and other healthcare services.
The personnel demoing the tech appear to be using a variant of Microsoft HoloLens. The government recently halted plans to buy more “AR combat goggles” from Microsoft, instead approving $40 million for the company to develop a new version. The reversal came after discovering that the current version caused issues like headaches, eyestrain and nausea.
DARPA is the Department of Defense’s “mad science” division. Founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958 to develop cutting-edge tech for the US, many of the agency’s projects have trickled down into non-military products, including GPS, speech recognition, self-driving cars and robotics. Oh, and a minor technology called “the internet” also stemmed from DARPA’s late 1960s ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) program. It’s easy to imagine some form of PTG eventually following their lead into our everyday lives.
Senator Joe Manchin, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has introduced a new bill that squashes a small loophole around the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) $7,500 EV tax credit. Engadget reports: The new credits are restricted to cars with final assembly in the US, as well as those with a certain amount of North American battery content (an amount that increases every year). But, the U.S. Treasury has delayed its final rules on battery guidance until March, which means EVs with foreign batteries can still receive the full $7,500 in credits until then. Manchin’s legislation, dubbed the American Vehicle Security Act (AVSA), would push the battery requirement back to January 1st.
“It is unacceptable that the U.S. Treasury has failed to issue updated guidance for the 30D electric vehicle tax credits and continues to make the full $7,500 credits available without meeting all of the clear requirements included in the Inflation Reduction Act,” Manchin wrote a statement. “The Treasury Department failed to meet the statutory deadline of December 31, 2022, to release guidance for the 30D credit and have created an opportunity to circumvent stringent supply chain requirements included in the IRA. The IRA is first-and-foremost an energy security bill, and the EV tax credits were designed to grow domestic manufacturing and reduce our reliance on foreign supply chains for the critical minerals needed to produce EV batteries.” Autoblog notes that the AVSA doesn’t patch the other IRA loophole, which also allows for the full credit for leased cars built outside of the U.S.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Senator Manchin Aims To Close Battery Loophole Around ,500 EV Tax Credit
AMD sent out a set of 32 kernel patches today for their AMDKFD/AMDGPU kernel driver code in providing upstream support for debugging of their GPU compute instruction set architecture (ISA)…
Source: Phoronix – AMD Working To Upstream New AMDGPU/AMDKFD Compute Debugger API
I consider myself a FromSoftware fashion girlie in the purest sense; I know my gravekeeper cloaks from my crimson hoods, and a Dior saddle bag from the Fendi baguette. This crossover knowledge is rarely practical, but is occasionally useful for declaratives. Like, I’m sure that Schiaparelli is pioneering FromSoftware…
Source: Kotaku – This Fashion Designer’s Latest Looks Are Straight Out Of Elden Ring
Potatoes have been saddled with a reputation of being “unhealthy,” and it’s unfair. The potato is just a lump of mostly starch (and a surprising amount of vitamin C) that grows in the ground. It’s as down-to-earth as a vegetable can get—literally. Sure, we can fry it in oil and call it a chip, but that’s hardly the…
Source: LifeHacker – Can We Stop Saying Potatoes Are Unhealthy?
While there are still systems with both byte orders,
little-endian has
largely “won” the battle at this point since the vast majority of today’s
systems store data with the least-significant byte first (at the lowest
address). But when the X11 protocol was developed in the 1980s, there were
lots of systems of each byte order, so the X protocol allowed either order
and the server (display side) would swap the bytes to its byte order as
needed. Over time,
the code for swapping data in the messages, which was written in a
more-trusting era, has bit-rotted so that it is now a
largely untested attack surface that is nearly always unused. Peter
Hutterer has been doing some work to stop using that code by default, both
in upstream
X.org code and in downstream Fedora.
Source: LWN.net – [$] X clients and byte swapping
Forza Motorsport, the eighth mainline entry in Turn 10 Studios’ long-running simulation racing series, will arrive later this year, the developer announced during Microsoft and Bethesda’s Developer Direct showcase. The release date technically constitutes something of a delay, as Microsoft announced last June it would release the game in the spring of this year. Moreover, if you were hoping to play the game on an Xbox One console, you’ll need to turn to the company’s Xbox Game Pass service to do so; Microsoft plans to release Forza Motorsport on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass and PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam.
On Wednesday, Turn 10 promised Forza Motorsport would take full advantage of the latest Xbox and PC hardware to deliver the franchise’s most immersive racing experience yet. The game will feature more than 500 cars for players to collect, including 100 vehicles that are new to the series. To make those cars look their best, Turn 10 used a spectrophotometer to scan the paint jobs of the cars featured in the game. “With this new sourcing technique, our paint models have a more realistic light response across colors, metal flake and gloss levels,” the studio said in a blog post published after the showcase. Each car will now also feature context-aware damage and dirt buildup that Turn 10 says is “authentic and unique” to each vehicle.
During the showcase, the studio showed off Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in South Africa, one of the five new racing tracks featured in the game. With the help of photogrammetry and laser-scanned images, Team 10 says the environments in Forza Motorsport feature 10 times more realistic detail than past entries in the series. With the addition of dynamic time of day and weather simulation, Turn 10 says fans can expect no two laps around a track to look or play the same.
Expect Microsoft to share more details about Forza Motorsport later this year.
Source: Engadget – ‘Forza Motorsport’ arrives later this year on Xbox Series X/S, PC and Game Pass
The Nintendo Switch certainly feels as though its time is drawing to a close. Six years old this year, it was already a technological generation behind on its release, and there’s no question that it’s increasingly struggling to run the games it’s hosting. Despite all this, and even with the rise of the Steam Deck,…
Source: Kotaku – 14 Exciting Games To Expect From Nintendo Switch In 2023
